


Taken Away

by RandomThoughtGirl



Category: Hunger Games Series - All Media Types
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-01-14
Updated: 2015-01-15
Packaged: 2017-11-25 14:20:37
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 27
Words: 28,523
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/639759
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RandomThoughtGirl/pseuds/RandomThoughtGirl
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>What if it were Katniss taken at the end of Catching Fire? What if she were pregnant on top of that? Add into that, that she believes Peeta, the father of her child, to be dead because of Snow, how can she keep going on? What will Peeta risk in order to get her back to him?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Peeta POV

I'm in the jungle running to someone. They keep getting further away with every step I take. Then I recognize who it is, Katniss. As I run I trip over countless tree roots and I fall. When I finally fall down and can't get back up I look to see Katniss being pulled into a hovercraft with the Capitol symbol on it.

"No!" I scream out to try and prevent the take off, but that's when I feel a claw wrap around me. I struggle for a moment until I think that if this is a Capitol hovercraft then I will be with Katniss.

I struggle to turn around and look at the hovercraft that's taking me away. That's when I see it, not the Capitol's symbol on the wing of it. It's from District 13. I struggle to get free from it, but it is no use.

That's when I hear Snow's voice broadcast throughout the arena say "So you're going to be a mother Katniss?"

"No! Stop! Take me instead!" I scream as loud as I can to try and be heard over the cannons and bombs being dropped.

Suddenly I wake with a jolt, bringing me out of my nightmare.

"Where is she? Where am I? What's going on? Who's there?" I call out as I look around the overly white and sterile room. Then a wall opens up and a two men walk in wearing lab coats, holding clipboards and clutching pencils.

"Oh good you're up." says one of the doctors in a happy/perky voice.

"Where is she?" I ask yet again. The wall opens up once more and in walks a disheartened Haymitch. "Haymitch, where is she?" I plead for him to tell me.

"I'm sorry..." he begins to speak then trails off.

"We're going to check your vitals" the doctor informs me.

"Okay," I say waving them off. "Haymitch? What happened?" I ask my voice slowly rising.

"We... We couldn't... get to her..." he tries to speak again but before I'm aware of my actions I am on my feet walking over to where he stands at the foot of my bed.

"What do you mean?" I snarl at Haymitch.

"Peeta they took her. The capitol has her. I'm sorry Pee-" right before he finishes apologizing I punch him in the face causing him to stagger backwards. I look at him and he tries to speak again but I silence him with another blow to the face.

"You didn't even try to get to get to her you fucking bastard! You didn't want to fucking get her! You don't give a shit about her! You just left her! I hate you, you drunken bastard I will NEVER forgive you for this" I scream at him, bombarding his body with endless blows. "You don't care about her or me or our baby! You are just an alcoholic who would do anything to save your own ass!" I scream at him as he yells back and curls into a ball. I start to slow down as I remember that she's the only reason I have to live. When I remember that she's pregnant and I may never see her or our baby. I begin to punch him harder and more viciously than before as I scream yet again. "She's pregnant and you just let Snow fucking have her!"

"Stop Peeta." I hear Haymitch yell at me. I pick him up and hold him against the wall. I grip around his neck and pull him a foot off the ground, choking him. Apparently the doctors are too stunned to try to sedate me so they just stand there looking at the scene before them.

"I can't believe you!" I snarl at him. "If she dies or our baby you will be next! That's for sure!" The doctors seem to come to their senses and try to sedate me. "NO, I think I'll just let it sit on your conscious while you rot in hell! That is if you even have a conscious! Burn in hell you bastard! Burn in hell!

The doctors manage to sedate me and the world goes black.


	2. Chapter 2

Katniss POV

Where am I? Oh yes, the Capitol took me. Where's Peeta though? Please let them not have him too! No, no, no.

"Ah Everdeen, Mellark, whatever your last name is I see you're awake." Snow's voice permeates the air and I can smell the scent of the blood and roses that follow him everywhere. "Too bad we couldn't get the boy, too" he sneers at me.

"What do you mean?" I ask befuddled.

"He died right after we rescued you."

"What?" My eyes grow wide "He's dead?" I shout at him even though he is a mere yard away from me. I make an attempt to get up and notice that it is no use. I wrap my arms around my stomach to attempt to protect my baby from this evil man.

"Yes, I guess that spear to the heart didn't help all that much though" His puffy lips spit at me dripping with evil joy.

"I don't believe you!" I exclaimed.

"Oh Katniss, I thought we agreed not to lie to each other." He paused to lick his puffy lips. "We have to show you the video then don't we?"

"What video?" I asked incredulously.

"The end of the games, my dear" Snow says in a sickeningly sweet voice. As he says this he steps aside so that I can watch the screen that was behind him. The screen springs to life and I watch fixated on it.

I see the lush green of the rainforest that was the arena. I see Peeta running to get to me. There is a cut to me being lifted into the hovercraft with the Capitol symbol on the wing. Then it's back to Peeta who runs into Brutis and Chaff who are dueling with knives. With the flick of his wrist Brutis's knife sinks into Chaff's chest right in front of his heart causing a bright red river of blood to sprout from his chest. Chaff then sinks down to the ground of the forest as if in slow-motion.

Peeta reaches to his belt and draws out a knife of his own. Before Brutis can even turn around Peeta walks up behind him and slits his throat. A large stream of blood erupts from the precise cut to Brutis's neck and his knees buckle. He slowly sinks to the ground again in slow-motion.

Then the camera goes to Johanna and Enabora dueling on the beach. Then just as Johanna backs into the water Enabora trips over a large rock. Only it isn't a rock, it's Finnick's head lying decapitated on the light sand, his blood forming a large, red pool on the sand, with Beetee standing over his body. Enabora takes out Beetee with one swift blow to the head with her morning star.

Then she turns and rapidly beats Johanna over the head with it before Johanna crumples into the water. Peeta appears out of the forest, wielding a spear. He throws it and kills Enabora swiftly. Then a spear appears out of nowhere and buries itself in his chest.

"No! I don't believe you!" I cry out.

"Oh, yes." Snow's snakelike hiss tells me. "And I thought we agreed not to lie to each other." He leans his head in close to my face so that we are mere inches apart. I can smell the nauseating mix of blood and overly strong roses. My stomach lurches and I try to turn my head but Snow grabs my jaw so I involuntarily vomit in his face. He apparently did not move his head before my vomit lands on his face.

"You filthy little b-" he begins to say.

"I tried to move. Not my fault." I say sarcastically.

"Oh yes I almost forgot about your little condition."

"Of course"

"About three and a half months right?" I nod my head in response "Oh that means you'll start showing soon"

"And why does that matter?"

"No reason. None at all." Snow says manically "We're just going to record some interviews for future use"

"What'll you do if I don't work with you?" I sneer at him.

" Well let's just say that morning sickness will not be a problem for you anymore." Snow snarls back at me.

"Fine, I'll do it!" I shout at the monster that is our President.

"I thought you would" he says vindictively as he walks out of the room.

Once he leaves I allow myself to break. I begin to sob uncontrollably at the thought of Peeta being dead. Of risking the only part of him inside me. Of me risking it if I don't comply.

No, Peeta can't be dead. Anything but that. If it weren't for the baby I would have no reason to live. I would rather have him in the custody of the Capitol than be dead. Then there is the remote possibility that we could be a family. The only thing that I care about now is the fact that this baby will never know it's father.


	3. Chapter 3

Peeta POV

I wake up to a blinding light overhead and look around to see that I'm still in the hospital. What? Why am I still here? Oh yeah I beat the shit out of Haymitch and they knocked me out. He just left her. I sneer inside my head as my face tenses up and my upper lip starts to twitch.

"Doctor." I call out, my voice somewhat scratchy from lack of use.

"What?" someone calls over the intercom.

"Where's Haymitch?"

"He has his own room here in the hospital." A scraggily voice comes out of the speaker above my head.

"How bad is he?" I ask.

"Bruising all over, a few minor lacerations, a broken arm, and he had a very minor concussion. Why do you want to know?"

"Just wanted to make sure he got what he deserved. That still isn't enough, yet." I mumble under my breath.

"What was that?" the doctor asks me seriously.

"Just wanted to make sure he was okay"

"How are you doing today?"

"Good . I have a question though."

"Ask away."

"Who else wasn't rescued?"

"That's more of a question for Haymitch..."

"Can you get him in here"

"Just a moment" the speaker dies as the doctor seems to walk away from it.

"What do you want boy?" Haymitch asks coming into the room.

"Who else wasn't rescued?"

"Enabora. You saw Chaff die and killed Brutis."

"So she was the only one who we needed to worry about and you didn't get her." I say seething with anger once again. I clench my hands into fists to try to control my anger.

"Calm down Mr. Angrypants." Haymitch says sarcastically. In any other circumstance I would laugh at the nickname but right now I am way to pissed at him. "We're going to get her out of there."

"How?" I ask dumbfounded. The Capitol is an impenetrable fortress. We'll never get her out of there.

"Well, we'll have to wait to see what they do with her. Then -"

"What do you mean 'see what they do with her'?"

"We're going to see how they are using her to stop the rebellion. Once we see what they will do with her we'll develop a rescue plan."

"Haymitch?"

"What?"

"Was she the only one we need to worry about?" I ask sounding like a child.

"Yes" He pauses.

" How could you? Just let that happen. We trusted you and you let us down. You just left her th-"

"Do you really think that I just left her behind? I had no other choice. The hovercraft was gingt to go down if we stayed any longer"

"We need to get her, soon"

"don't worry Peeta snow will do something soon."

"That's exactly what worries me!"

"Peeta do you really think that Snow will kill her?"

"Yes, why wouldn't he?"

"He has a hostage. She could be a martyr for the cause. Snow's not stupid you know"

"No, that's what worries me" I say solemnly. There is a long pause and I finally ask "Haymitch. When am I getting out of here?"

"I've convinced the doctors that you should be let out today. We will need your help in Command."

"Okay so when do I leave?"

"As soon as possible"

"So..."

"Get ready Idiot!"

"Oh, okay"

I hurriedly get ready and it only takes me a few minutes. I meet up with Haymitch outside my room and he takes me to Command central. When we walk in the door I see a large, metallic, round table sitting near the entrance to the room. There on the opposite side of the table is an older woman with sharp features, pale grey eyes, and silver hair that falls in an unbroken sheet onto her shoulders.

Haymitch and I take the two empty seats at the table and the meeting begins.


	4. Chapter 4

I have been in the Capitol for about two weeks now. During that time I've been recording countless interviews for future use. The dresses get larger and larger. I record victory interviews and I have interviews calling for ceasefires.

I awake one morning in a cold sweat from a nightmare I had where Snow sent my child to die in the Hunger Games. I open my eyes and see his face right above my own, a mischievous smile spread across his stretched, ugly face. I blink because I'm not quite used to the light coming in the large windows.

"How do you like the new room?" He asks me. After he asks me I look around and notice that I have been moved from the previous prison cell of a room and am now in a luxurious room that is even nicer than the room I had back at the training center.

Wall to wall plush, red carpet. Highly decorative wall paper, high ceilings with crown molding. Four post bed with red and orange bedding.

Orange, that is his favorite color, and it's just the right shade. Was, Katniss, was. I start crying because I have to actually remind myself that he's gone.

"Well seems like she doesn't like it," Snow says sarcastically. "Oh well, you have to get up any way." I look at him bewildered for a moment. "You have an interview tonight."

"Oh" I get out between sniffs. "What am I saying this time?"

"The same as your first interview"

"Okay." I say simply. I get out of bed and am escorted by a solitary guard to my prep team, which is actually Peeta's old one. I only have the one guard because they know that I won't try anything... yet. I arrive at the prep room and the group immediately descends on me and gets to work.

It takes them all day to get me ready. They put me in a corset that completely hides the bit of a baby bump I do have, and makes it nearly impossible to breath. After that fun experience I am forced into a short, black, flowing dress that comes to my knees.

The same guard that took me to my room leads me to the studio that I have been recording all my interviews at but just before I enter though the door he stops me, bends down and whispers to me "Just say your lines nothing else, I can't promise your safety if you don't work with him."

This advice gains a bewildered look to the guard. I had planned on cooperating with them. "Okay that was the plan" I say annoyed.

He stands strait again and says "Don't try anything funny Kid." like the guard he is supposed to be.

"Okay." Just then Snow rounds the corner and looks like he has something important to tell me. Great some script changes. I think to myself.

"Ah, I see you've made it."

"What do you want?"

"I just remembered to tell you that this interview will be live."

"Okay whatever." I say rolling my eyes.


	5. Chapter 5

Peeta POV

During the meeting I learn the names of everyone around the table. The older woman is the President, Coin. Then there are her head military personnel, Boggs, Edwards, Kemper, and Cox. We discuss the information that we have gathered about Katniss's whereabouts. (Apparently I was in a chemical induced coma for a week after I was rescued from the arena and another week after I attacked Haymitch during which they have found out a lot about her circumstances). They have determined that she is being held in Snow's mansion.

We have a spy inside the mansion and he is one of her guards. He informed us that there will be a live interview done tonight and aired throughout the districts including 13. The guard also told us that Snow has somehow convinced her that all of us are dead, the tributes in the last game at least.

The people at the table fall silent and I assume that I was just asked a question that I didn't pay attention to.

"What?" I ask dumbly.

"Would you like to watch it?" Haymitch asks me.

"Yes." I respond quickly.

"Okay Beetee has been able to breech the network and can broadcast anything he wants to in the districts. He is currently working on infiltrating the channel in the Capitol." Coin informs us.

"What's the point of that?" I ask dumbly yet again.

"We will be filming a series of propos using the victors in combat scenarios to lift the spirits of the spirits of the districts who are on the verge of giving up."

"Okay, I want to do anything I can to help." I say.

"Good we'll be sending you to 8 right after the interview... What's your weapon of choice?"

"Umm... I don't really know, the only weapon I've used is a knife."

"We'll get you down to the shooting range to work with the different types of machinery."

"Okay" I pause not wanting to ask the next question "How exactly is this going to help Katniss? I mean won't it just make Snow even more angry?"

"The more districts we have the more quickly we can get to her and the more safe the mission will be. We won't show anything in the Capitol for a while so he won't know until then." Haymitch informs me.

"Send me to 8 then." I declare emphatically.

"Okay the interview is to start at 7 so you have all day to practice and get used to the weapons. Soldier Cox will you please escort Soldier Mellark down to the shooting range." Coin says.

Cox rises from the table. He looks to be an inch or two taller than me and has a strong muscular build. He is also quite tan which surprises me because most of the people here are pale as sheets


	6. Chapter 6

Katniss POV

The director of the interview begins the countdown for it to begin. I sit in my chair uncomfortably and mess with the fabric of my dress. Then I notice that the red recording light on the camera has turned on. The camera focuses on Caesar as he introduces me to the crowd, as if I need one.

"So Katniss, I think everyone here's just dying to know how you're coping with your husband's death." He asks followed by a great round of applause from the crowd.

"I'm doing okay actually." I inform him slowly stroking my ever-so slightly extended stomach. Now on to the script I remind myself mentally. "President Snow has been so accommodating as to offer me a room in his house to stay in." I tell him with what I can muster as sincerity.

"Oh, how very considerate of him." Caesar tells me. Love the script Snow. It totally seems legitimate, I think to myself sarcastically.

"Yes he has been a most gracious host." Again Snow really believable.

"So I absolutely must ask, is there anything that you would have wanted to say to Peeta, your husband and the father of your child, before he met his untimely end?" Caesar asks me going off script.

"Yes of course I wanted to say that I loved him more than anything, other than our baby. I just want this little one to look and act just like him. I just hope he knew how much I really did love him. I won't ever really forget him." I say with tears threatening to spill over in my eyes.

Caesar leans over and rubs my shoulder in a calming manner. I collect myself in time for the next question on the list.

"So about your baby, have you found out the gender?" I shake my head in response and he gives me a pityingly look. "You want a boy don't you?"

I look at him forgetting about the cameras. "Yes, I want to have a mini-Peeta." Tears now streaming from my eyes freely.

Caesar reaches over and pats my shoulder to try to relax me. I begin to calm down after a minute or so and he brings on the next question. "We can stop now if you want." That surprises me, but I continue with the interview.

"Was there anything else to discuss?" I ask wryly as I head back onto the script and clearing the tears from my eyes.

"Well, I was going to ask for your thoughts on the war, but since you're so upset..." he begins only to trail off at the end.

"Oh, I'm not too upset to talk about that." I answer, taking a deep breath and turning to face the camera. "I want everyone watching-Capitol side or rebel side- to think about what this war could mean for us. For all of humanity. We almost wiped out the entirety of us in the last war and now we have fewer people than before. Is this really what we want to do? Kill ourselves off entirely?"

"I don't.. I'm not sure I'm following you." Caesar says playing dumb perfectly.

"We cannot fight one another!" I say thankful for the practice and the script now because I would have no clue what to say if I didn't have one. "There won't be enough of us to sustain our species if we don't lay down our weapons, right now, otherwise it'll be all over anyways."

"So... you're calling for a ceasefire?" Caesar asks plainly.

"Yes that's exactly what I'm saying. I am calling for a ceasefire" I say tiredly. "Now why don't we ask the guards to take me back to my room so I can get out of these uncomfortable clothes, and take yet another nap?" I ask.

"Okay I think we can manage that. So this was fun Katniss hope you have sweet dreams." he says as I stand alongside him.

"Oh, I can promise you I won't." I say to him.

"Why is that?" Shit Katniss why can't you just shut your mouth? You are supposed to be on script and it said nothing about mentioning your nightmares on live television, I think to myself.

"I've almost always had terrible nightmares" I say plainly.

"When haven't you?" Caesar asks me.

"Before my dad died and whenever I would sleep beside Peeta usually." I say tears forming in my eyes yet again. Stupid hormones. I can't go five minutes without crying can I? No, that would be just too damn easy, I think to myself, but it'll be worth this, when you have your mini-Peeta with you.

"Oh, I'm sorry." he says to me then turns to the camera and signs off.

Once the camera is off Caesar asks me "Katniss are you okay?" he is the person that I most trust at the moment so I lean into him and begin sobbing.

"No I'm not." I choke out between sobs. He rubs my back and tries to reassure me but it just has the opposite effect. It reminds me of how I had Peeta to calm me down before but he's gone.

"Katniss, it'll be o-"

"No it won't! He's gone..."I say trailing off into a set of sobs. I can see Caesar wave someone away and I assume that he is telling the guards to back off. "I have to go." I say collecting myself.

"Come on then" the guard tells me. He takes my arm gently and leads me off to my room. Once back to my room I climb under the covers and fall asleep instantly.


	7. Chapter 7

Peeta POV

As I watched her interview I sat in my room in the only chair there. I watched the interview with tears in my own eyes. She broke down crying and it just shatters my heart to know that there's nothing I can do about it now, that she's all alone and I can't do anything to comfort her. I also despise the fact that they have somehow convinced her that I am dead.

When she started crying halfway through I just wanted to go to the Capitol and kill everyone, and bring her back to me, but we all know that I can't do that.

"You okay boy?" Haymitch asks me, and I understand why he would ask because I've been sitting in this chair for the last five minutes just staring at the screen, clutching the armrests.

"What do you think? No, I'm not. I absolutely hate the feeling that she's going through that all alone there without anyone." I tell him.

"Trust me someone will be able to be there for her. If only for a moment." he looks away before speaking again. "I hate to tell you this but... we won't be able to get to her for a while. We-"

"What do you mean that 'we won't be able to get to her for a while'? Shouldn't she be top priority?" I ask rising from my chair.

"Actually no." He holds up a hand to silence me before I argue. "From what we've seen Snow isn't not torturing her, yet, so we are just going to focus a little more on the war rather than rescuing her. I know, I know, I'm not too happy about it either"

"Oh, so since we can't tell if she's being physically tortured, that we can see," I have to pause and shake my head when I begin to think of what Snow could be putting her through at this very second. "that makes her unimportant to us now?" I begin to yell at her. "What if she's being tortured right now for subpar performance during the interview?"

"Peeta we can't go flying into the capitol solely based off of a boy worried crazy. And anyways I've already argued about this. Coin was none too pleased with me and ended up throwing me out of the Command meeting because of the scene I was causing." He looks back to me and quietly tells me. "I don't want her there any more than you do."

We stand there for several moments until he finally says what's been on both of our minds the entire time. "Go on and say it. I know what's coming."

"I just can't believe you didn't save her! If she weren't pregnant that would have been bad enough but she is, so that's just one more thing for him to hold against her. You should have left me, and saved her." We both wait in silence until I add " Now you say it."

"I just can't believe that you let her leave your side. You said it yourself that it would have been bad enough if she weren't pregnant but she is."

We sit there for five minutes and wait for me to be collected to go to district 8 with the other victors Johanna and Finnick would be accompanying me to our quarters. While Beetee stays back at district 13 to work on developing weapons with Gale and many others.

Finally someone comes and brings me and Haymitch to the waiting hovercraft.

Finally I can do something to help Katniss


	8. Chapter 8

Katniss POV

My name is Katniss Mellark. I'm six months pregnant with Peeta's child. Peeta is dead. I'm being held in President Snow's mansion. I haven't had a second alone in the two and a half months I've been here. My guard is practically bipolar. I'm slowly going insane... I need Peeta. Snow is forcing me to announce that I will kill my baby if the rebellion doesn't end. He wants to kill it...

I had resorted to listing random things in my head to keep my mind off of what I was going to do tomorrow, I have a live interview and I am going to announce that I will kill my child if the rebellion doesn't end soon.

"I'll do it you know." Snow said to me casually over dinner. He knew I was in no position to be attacking him so he no longer forced me into solitude. He 'graciously' allowed me to eat with him. I continue to shovel the food in my mouth just so I can get out of the room as soon as humanly possible. "You could slow down you know." He sneers at me. I completely ignore him and continue to eat as quickly as possible. When I finish I push back from the table and grunt to him. "You really need to get some better manners."

"Yeah and you need to stop wearing those roses around me." I sneer at him. It's true I had been eating so fast mainly because I was starving and I knew if I stayed in this room too long everything would come back up.

"Anything for the Jabberjay." He said sarcastically.

So that night I got all fixed up by my prep team and sat on stage waiting for the interview to begin. It was a matter of minutes but to me it felt like hours. When Snow came onto the stage he told me "Do what I told you to and everything will be fine, but if you don't then someone will die." To that I nodded wordlessly. Thankfully he left to go stand in the wings and Caesar came onto the stage.

"Are you ready for this?" He asked me.

"As ready as I'll ever be." He turned to the camera and the red light turned on. Caesar perked up more and I tried to look as relaxed as possible.

"Hello Panem so great so see you all again!" His voice boomed. "We're here with Katniss Mellark once again and we're going to have an absolute great time!" He yelled as the audience roared with applause. "So tell us Katniss, how are you?"

"Well I'm doing okay."

"Well you look amazing," he says then turns to the audience "Doesn't she?" In response there was another huge round of applause accompanied by shouts and whistles.

"Thank you" I say and try to make it look like I'm blushing like it says in the script.

After about twenty more minutes of meaningless chitchat he brings up the question that I really don't want to give the answer to. "How do you feel about this war Katniss?"

I stare at the audience for a moment before I open my mouth to tell them, but just as I do Peeta's face lights up a screen. Then he begins to speak "People of Panem are you going to use your freedom to fight? If you say no, choose to run let me tell you just one thing. Fight and you may die but run and you live at least for now, but as you lay dying in your beds many years from now you'll want to give up everything to come back to this time so you can tell our enemies that they may take our lives but they will never take our freedom." I just stare at the screen blankly until Caesar pulls us out of our stupor.

"Umm... so Katniss your views on the war?"

"Well I absolutely hate it. It is a waste of human lives and all of our time. Though right now I'm just so stressed about it that I'm just about to kill my baby." I tell him.

"What do you mean by that Katniss?" He asks concerned.

"I mean I am being stressed to the point where I'm about to lose my baby that's what!"

"Oh Katniss we didn't know..."

"Yeah well now you do." I tell him pissed. "I just want this to be over so that nothing bad happens to my baby." I say softening my mood. "I mean it's all I have left of Peeta..." great here come the tears. I sob uncontrollably completely ruining my makeup which I'll get hell about after this is done.

Caesar reaches over and rubs my shoulder in a move to comfort me but the tears will not stop. "Katniss it's okay." When I don't stop crying he just talks to the camera for a minute then gathers me in a hug. "Katniss he's not gone, they're trying to get you." He whispers to me.

I just shake my head and walk away


	9. Chapter 9

Peeta POV

I sat looking at the televisions screen, watching the interview Katniss had done over and over on loop. The look on her face when she said that our child would die... when I interrupted the interview. I just know that she's going to be punished for something that was entirely my fault. I should have never agreed to do that. She's in a lot of danger already and now this tops it off.

I spring to my feet out of my chair and begin to walk quickly down the hall to Haymitch's room. I reach it and knock quickly on his door. "Haymitch?"

The door swings open on its hinges and his head appears. "What is it boy? No never mind don't answer that I already know the answer. Katniss."

"What do you think they're going to do to her?"

"Well I'm not one hundred percent sure but I'm quite sure she wouldn't lose that baby to stress."

"What the hell do you mean! We have to get her now! It's obvious that she's in danger and we know where she is so it really wouldn't take much."

"We're planning a rescue but I can't really promise anything."

I turn say a quick thanks and run out of the room. I go to command and find Gale sitting at a computer next to Beetee. I squat down next to them, with difficulty, then say. "Beet, what have you heard about a rescue?" I whisper quickly to him.

"Nothing, well I have to say nothing because Coin won't let you go. So nothing." He whispers looking at me sympathetically. Gale turns away from the screen and looks to me as well.

"I'll make sure it goes as planned." Gale then says to me.

"Wait so she's letting you go but not me? Why?"

"You're the face of the rebellion and if something happens to you on this mission then the rebels would be demoralized. And I honestly don't think you'd follow your orders." He shrugs. I stand up to full height and look down to him. Then he stands up. We look each other up and down. "I don't care who you are I need you to understand that it's Coin's orders not mine. So lay off buddy." He says pushing my shoulder.

"Really Gale? You're so full of yourself no wonder I hate you. You act all tough but your just as freaking helpless as I am. Just so you know I will be going on that mission no matter what. Have fun with your little power trip. If anything happens to her I. Will . Kill. You. " I say to him.

"Oh really? Whatever I have to get back to work so if you don't mind..." he trails off looking at his communicuff. Then his eyes go as big as saucers looking back to me. "We need to go. NOW." I look at him for a minute in shock.

"Where are we going?" I ask totally dumb.

"We have to board the hovercraft. Coin just decided to have you come with us." I nod shortly as he turns and takes off down a hallway. I am right on his heels the entire time and when we finally get to the hanger we stop and wait to catch our breaths. Just as we do a man in the district thirteen soldier uniform walks over to us and asks for our name.

"Peeta Mellark" I say. The guard looks up then back to his list.

He points to the side and I look to see a stack of uniforms for the district thirteen soldiers. "Grab one and go change." he tells me. He looks to Gale and scans him like one of those computer lasers before he says "Gale why aren't you already in one? Go change."

I walk over to the area and grab the uniform, then change quickly. Just then the man who was getting us all checked in yells for us to board the hovercraft. Gale comes up beside me and says "You ready Pete?"

I nod then say simply "you?"

"I've been ready for this for a quite some time now..." he trails off as we board the craft.

I turn to him ready to go right back to where we were before we got called on this mission, but when I am facing him I notice that he has the slip of paper that came from the communicuff. I look over his shoulder and read what it says

I don't care if he dies get Peeta Mellark on the Hovercraft!

Gale turns his head and I know he sees me reading the paper. "Okay I'll admit I was the one who didn't want you to come... Coin didn't care."

"Why do you then?" I ask him sneeringly.

"I just know that Katniss cares about you, loves you, and I saw what she looked like when she thought you were dead. I just didn't want her to look like that because you actually were. Not even being able to look at your kid because of the painful memories. I just love her too much to do that to her, or help doing that to her." He shakes his head while he explains.

"Do you think she knows about 12?" I ask trying to change the subject before I got my hopes too high for this mission and Gale giving Katniss to me.

"Obviously otherwise she'd not be nearly as devastated. She'd have some hope. Something to be thankful for." He tells me angrily.

"What are you two boys talking about?" Haymitch's scraggly voice asks as he comes over to where we are standing.

"Katniss..." I begin only to trail off. Then Haymitch just shakes his head.

"I'm still really sorry about all of this boy." He tells me.

"Do you think this will really work?" Gale asks him.

"I don't really know." Haymitch tells him.

"It just seems too easy..." Gale states.

"That's what worries me." I tell them both. I had gone to a very short briefing on what we were to do and all they said was we go in, get her, we get out.

Just then we land on the roof to President Snow's huge mansion and the doors open into the early morning air above the Capitol..


	10. Chapter 10

Katniss POV

I wake to my little baby's kick. I smile as I rub my stomach in a simple and comforting way I look up and I realize that my guard is not in my room. Huh, that's the first time I've been left alone in forever. I get up and walk over to the bathroom that's connected to my room. I reach out to touch the door knob to the bathroom and realize that the door's shut. That's unusual, this door is never closed. I grab it to turn it and realize it's locked as well.

I knock on the door and heard some movement inside. Who is in my bathroom? The door swings open and there stands my guard. They have to go sometimes I guess.

"Sorry." He mumbles side stepping out of the way for me to enter.

"It's fine..." I say lowly. I walk in, leaving the door open because I know that he will insist that it remains that way, but he reaches over and closes the door for me. I don't give it a second thought I just use this time alone to start my bath. I undress and slip into the steaming hot water. I let out an sigh as I fully relax into the tub.

I just sit there pondering for a bit well more like half an hour when suddenly there's a pounding at my door. "Get dressed, NOW" my guard yells at me through the door. I step cautiously out of the tub and put on an outfit that has been laid out for me as usual.

The second I'm out of the bathroom my guard takes my hand and begins to run through the hallway just outside of my room. "What's going on? Where are you taking me?" I ask in fear and confusion, not a good mix I would like to tell you.

"There's been a break in we have to keep you safe..." He tells me. We begin to wind our way through the halls to places I have never been before. I look at our surroundings completely oblivious to the fact that the guard in front of me is leading me into the basement of the building.

"Why are we here?" I ask bewildered. Just as I say that the floor below me begins to shake and we both see debris rain down from the ceiling. He turns to me with a look of sheer terror on his face, drops my hand and shoves me forward.

"Run, Just run Katniss! Just go, get out of the basement and save yourself." He screams at me. The debris is falling more rapidly now and the peices are increasing in size, they went from snowflakes to the size of bricks in the few seconds it took him to turn me around.

I turn around to see a beam fall. My first instinct is to run the heck out of the collapsing basement but at the same time I know I have to help the man who is trying to save my life. I decide the only way to save either one of us is to just get us the hell out of there. I turn to find the mysterious guard. I only wish I hadn't. When I do I not only see him but I see that a large amount of the debris that fell is on top of his leg. Sandwiching it in between it and the floor. The man is lying on the ground, face contorted in pain, grabbing at his leg to try to free it, to no success. I begin shifting rubble to try to free the man only to realize that he is pinned down by the beam which I cannot move.

"Katniss you need to go. It's all coming down, save yourself, live for me. Just go there's nothing you can do for me now." He says as he slowly fades out of our world...

"No, no, no, no, no don't die, don't die, please. Just stay with me. " I yell to him even though I know he's too far gone. Tears begin to stream down my face, it's as if Peeta died, not the man lying before me. I wipe my tears away and get up.

I find the stairs and run up them, at least as fast as I can run with my stomach. When I reach the top I realize that I have no clue where I am. I try to follow the path I came to get to the basement but I don't know where it'll lead me back to so there is really no reason to do so. Instead I just take random turns until I recognize something.

I reach the door to President Snow's private study and approach it slowly. I hear a quiet conversation just on the other side of the door. After I consider running as far and as fast away from this place I hear something that peaks my intrest,

"he's with the rebels."

"No, he's not."

"Yes right after he was rescued from the arena they took him to 13 and now he's helping them." I hear Snow say.

"This ruins all of our plans..."

"Exactly, this is why Katniss can never find out about this..."

I turn on heel before one of the men leaves the room, and finds me. I walk down the hall and just as I'm about to round the corner the door goes flying open and out walks President Snow. He catches sight of me and walks to where I stand frozen in fear.

"Katniss why don't we get you back to your room?" He says in a sinisterly calm way. I just stand there and nod my head like a small child asked something they don't understand.

He takes me to an elevator that I didn't remember being there and we ride to my floor. Once the elevator stops we get off of it and begin the walk to my room.

Half way there Snow stops in his tracks grabs my arm and takes off in the direction of the elevator we just got off.

When we get back to the elevator Snow seems to be out of his mind worrying as he presses the button to take us down to the first floor I see a man with blonde hair round the corner.

He runs closer and I recognize him immediately. The blonde hair, those blue eyes, but it can't be him. They told me he was dead, showed me him dying.

"Peeta..." His name escapes my lips like the ghost I know he must be. Before he reaches us however the doors shut and he's gone...


	11. Chapter 11

Peeta's POV

The door to the elevator closes just as I reach it. I will never forget the look on her face when she said my name, like she just saw a ghost. It tears me apart just how much Snow has brainwashed her. She doesn't believe I'm alive...

Gale's pounding footsteps come around the corner, the only time he makes any noise is when he runs.

"Peeta! Where is she?" He shouts trying to catch his breath. "You let her get away?" He then shouts angrily.

"I almost got there but her and Snow were in the elevator. The doors closed before I could stop it." I say bleakly. We both slump to the floor in the middle of the hallway. Gale reaches over and grabs the radio that somehow landed in the middle of the floor.

"They're in the elevator going down. I repeat they are in the elevator" He says frantically.

"I knew it wouldn't be that easy" we hear Boggs's voice come from the machine. "You two head to the roof, the rest of the group bottom floor surround the elevator!" He instructs us. We locate the stairs at the other end of the hall and we take the stairs two at a time. When we reach the top and burst out onto the roof we run to the center where out hovercraft sits. There is another set of recruits on the hovercraft waiting right outside of it.

We meet up with them and get our plan set up. Half of the team is inside waiting at the bottom of the elevator while we are waiting for their escape craft to come up. In the midst of this Peacekeepers storm the roof and we begin to fight it out.

A peacekeeper comes right at me holding a visel, one of their high tech knife/swords that can cut through bone in one slice. I have a gun and a visel of my own, only mine was engineered by Beetee who made it so that if I threw it I would only have to call it back. The man reminded me distinctively of Thread, with the same body structure and facial features they could be twins.

I narrowly block his blow and attempt to strike back only to be blocked by his visel, this continues on for quite some time. Somehow we manage to both drop our visels and begin to fight hand to hand. Punches are thrown. Blows taken until we are both bloody. I turn to look at Gale, he shouts at me, something I don't understand. Then I turn to see the man I was fighting holding a brick high above his head. He brings it down and the world goes black...

xXxXxXxXxXxXx

When I wake I'm back on the hovercraft, Gale is standing over me.

"What the hell happened?" I ask him.

"Well that peacekeeper knocked you out with that brick..." he says nonchalantly.

"What about the rescue? Did we get her?" I ask frantically.

"No we didn't. Her and Snow escaped out the emergency escape tunnel. It only leads to one place."

"Where is that?" I ask trying to sit up, but quickly learning that that is a mistake. I get really dizzy and my head starts to throb worse than it was before.

"Whoa dude just lay there. We think that you got a concussion from that lovely little incident" he tells me smirking.

"You didn't answer my question. Where does the tunnel lead to?" I ask a bit more forcefully this time.

"Intel tells us that it will lead one of two places, The training center and the stage in front of it. So either way she's gone..." He says looking out of the window. "Don't worry though we're already trying to get her out again."

"How much longer until we get to thirteen?"

"We actually just got there. Come on we need to get you to the hospital." He says offering me his hand to help me stand. I put my arm around his shoulder and he guides me to my hospital room. I've only been in here twice now and both times I was highly agitated like when I beat Haymitch, then once again after I got back from the district 8 because I managed to break my ankle. I hated being cooped up in this room for three weeks while it healed with the help of medicines from the district 13 hospital.

"How long will it take to get her again?" I ask completely ignoring the fact that I very well may have a concussion but to me that's small potatoes to Katniss still being in the Capitol, still in danger, carrying our child, unaware of my living.

"We don't know Peeta. It'll take a while though, she'll be even more gaurded than before and we don't have a man on the inside that has easy access to her anymore" He tells me firmly.

"What happened to him?" I ask bewildered.

"Well he was her one and only guard. He was killed in the collapse in the basement. We're lucky she wasn't with him, or at least got away safely..."

"She's fine I know that but you should have seen the look on her face when she saw me... like she saw a ghost."

"That's because she thinks you're dead Peeta! In her mind she DID see a ghost!" He exclaims loudly to me.

"Not so loud Gale... ugh how far till we get there? I think I'm going to barf." I say as the hall begins to tilt to one side then the other. I begin to sense that I have a migraine that has been building over the walk.

"Peeta are you okay?" He asks.

"NoImgointafalover" I slur out. He stops turns me around and looks into my eyes for a moment.

"Peeta sit down right here and don't move okay? I'll be right back." He says before setting me on the floor and bolting down the hall. Once out of sight the dizziness takes over me and I vomit all over the floor. Then for the second time today I black out


	12. Chapter 12

We stand in the elevator for mere moments before I get the idea to try something. It totally breaks Snow and my agreement not to try anything funny but I could care less. I just want to know if what I saw was real or just a trick of my eye.

I inch closer to Snow and grab the taser that I had taken from my guard, who now lays dead in the basement of this hell hole, and placed it in my waistband. He seems oblivious to the fact that I am about to attack him so I take this time to turn it on and shock him. The taser lights up between the two metal pieces and I know that I have to do this now.

I swiftly shock him and catch him slightly as he falls to the floor. The elevator stops on the first floor and I shove him out, ignoring the giant fight going on in the background. The peacekeepers struggling to gain control over some other army that I have never seen before. They are all wearing the same uniform that the ghost Peeta was wearing. Both wielding similar weapons and none having any guns whatsoever.

I hit the button for the floor that I had been on in the elevator when I saw Peeta, I know it wasn't real but I just want to make absolute sure. I don't want to live not knowing. I hammer the third floor button waiting impatiently as the elevator begins to lift me skyward.

The door opens and I'm left looking at an empty hallway.

Just what I thought, I tell myself. It was all in your head. He's truly dead and there is nothing you can do about it.   
I run through the hall to try to get away from the insanity that is occurring downstairs. I soon find a flight of stairs and begin to climb frantically. I never thought that there were more than those three floors and the basement but evidently there is much more than meets the eye. I run up three flights of steps before I reach a door marked 'Roof'. I stop and go back down a flight of steps to see an unlocked door.  
I reach for the handle and am just turning it when I feel arms wrap around my arm and middle. Pulling me away from the door. The man turns me around and I see him. It has been so long since I saw that cruel face.

He's the man who punished all of district twelve. Who whipped Gale. And who sent peacekeepers after me just to keep me in line.

"Thread" I breath out.

"Oh why are you so surprised to see me? Is it because you know that all of district twelve was bombed and no one survived? Oh wait, no one told you, whoops." He says staring straight at me laughing at the expression of terror on my face.

In my mind all sorts of things are going on, my mind is racing, breath quickening. Heart rate getting too high.

He roughly takes my arm and pulls me down the several flights of stairs. We turn off the stairs and walk down the hallway to Snow's office. He stops just at the door, turns and stops me as well. Then he gives me a frisk that lasts far too long for my liking. His hands lingering in the most inappropriate places. Me flinching when he reaches too far up my thigh. He laughs when I flinch at his touch and continues to check the rest of my body.

Finally he decides I'm clean and opens the door. I'm met by the smell of roses the second I open the door. Snow sits at his seat looking thoughtfully at me, hands folded, eyes glowering, no trace of what happened just half an hour ago.

"Oh how nice of you to join me Mrs. Mellark. Why don't you have a seat?" He says motioning for a chair that sits right before his gleaming mahogany desk. I spread my hands out on the arm of the chair and try to relax before he begins his little baby begins to move yet again and I know that I have to calm down. I begin to stroke my stomach in a way that is calming for both my baby and I.

"So you realize that I cannot keep you here any longer seeing as our location has been compromised." I nod my head as he looks to me checking to see if I'm following. "I would have let you off easy if you hadn't pulled that little stunt in the elevator. Because of that I will have you treated more like a prisoner and less like a guest. You shall be subjected to frisks not unlike the one you experienced today, will be put on constant surveillance and will not be allowed to be escorted by a single guard anymore. There will be a minimum of two to be watching you at all times."

"Wait so you'll like be watching me change? Isn't that like illegal? I don't want to have you guys watch me get dressed. I mean I'm pregnant I'm already uncomfortable with my F-ing body! I don't want a bunch of sick-o's watching me get dressed!" I yell across the table. Snow doesn't look phased at all by the onslaught of accusations I just threw at him. He slowly unfolds his hands and leans forward to me.

"You do realize that I won't be taping it just have it in live action and even if I do tape it there are sensors? I could let Thread keep doing your checks seeing as you know him so well."

"No. I would much rather have anyone else do those." I say quickly trying to keep the anxiety out of my voice.

"Okay but I can't promise it'll be any better than him. There have been some offers for a night with you. Alone in your room." My eyes practically bulge out of my head as I listen to what he says.

"You have got to be kidding me right? You turned them down, right?" He simply leans back and looks at me thoughtfully. Folding his hands again. Staring me down not answering my questions. "Well then, where are we going? Since we can't stay here." I say waving my hands around acknowledging the room around us.

"Well we're going to be heading to the Training Center. I just know you'll feel right at home there. I mean you have been there twice now, or is it three times? None the less you'll have the same room that you used before so I'm not rigging up anything new in there. I just have to flip the switch on the current cameras." He tells me standing from his chair, coming around the desk and offering me his hand. I, begrudgingly, take it and stand up.

We exit the room and as we do so his guards begin to flank the both of us.

The hallway begins to narrow and we meet a different set of stairs that I've never seen before. Snow guides me down them and once we reach the bottom I look around amazed. This area was not affected at all by the cave in and it leads to a small tunnel. The tunnel reflect what little light there is reflects off the walls, glistening as it bounces around. The guards usher us to begin walking again and we do. It's then that I look down the tunnel to see the bright light down it.

I begin to feel a lightened feeling in my chest. As if when I reach my room up on the twelfth floor in the building, that the man I love will be there waiting for me. Though I know too well to believe that. He's dead, never coming back. Never going to kiss me or hold me again. Never going to meet his little baby. Most of all never going to see him or her grow up, all because he's dead, right? Of course, he's gone. Never coming back to me or our baby...


	13. Chapter 13

As I wake up I become aware that I am not in my usual bed. The material under me is scratchier and the lights above more intense than the dim ones in my compartment. I also become aware of a whispered conversation not too far from me.

"Wait so what did she do?" Asks a befuddled Gale.

"Well she electrocuted Snow with a taser and shoved him out of the elevator, unconscious, in the middle of a full on war on the main floor." Haymitch tells him and they both start laughing.

"Well seems to me as though she's gotten more violent. There's an accomplishment." Gale says still laughing.

"Remind me to leave her the hell alone from now on."

"She's only like that because of the hormones." I tell them causing them to jump a mile in the air. Evidently they didn't know I was up.

"Well Mr. sleepyhead decided to wake up!" Haymitch laughs.

"Not so loud stupid." I say rubbing my temples to try to make the pain go away. "Why does my head hurt so freaking much?" I ask the two of them.

"Well you got a concussion and-"

"How did I get a concussion?" I ask befuddled.

"Well when you were rescuing Katniss you got in a fight and... well the guy hit you in the head with a brick..." Haymitch tells me looking down.

"Oh, so we got her? Thank goodness I want to see her so bad right now." I tell them making to get up but then my head starts hurting again and I lay back down on the pillows.

I look over to where Gale and Haymitch are, staring at each other arguing quietly. Finally Gale gives in and tries to stall.

"Um, Peeta we didn't get to her in time..." he tells me rubbing the back of his neck. The smile I had on my face a few seconds ago has been wiped clean off by this simple statement.

"So... she-she's dead..." I say looking down, eyes watering.

"No, she's not dead, we just didn't get to her in time to rescue her." Gale says getting up and coming to my side.

"Now I wish I didn't remember..." I say at a loss for words.

"It's better you do. I hate to make this worse but you need to know... we might not have another chance to get her, at least not for some time..." He tells me.

"What so you're not even going to try now!" I yell trying to stand up. Gale pushes me back down onto the bed.

"Really Peeta? You think we're not trying? Of f-ing course we are! I don't want her there just as much as you don't want her there but currently we have no choice. The only thing I can tell you is that we managed to get another person in and he's relaying us live feed from her room in the training center..." He tells me. I stare at him blankly until I realize what he's saying. I will be able to watch her. I know it sounds creepy but I'll know how well she is and my baby.

"Wait do you know anything about her yet?" I ask quickly.

"No but we will. Just get some sleep and we'll have more information when you wake up." Gale tells me.

My face scrunches in what must appear to be pain because Haymitch asks me "Do you need some more morphling? I can get you some."

"Yes, please" I tell him.

He leaves and Gale asks me "Why don't you just give up? I mean all you do is push harder and harder. Give up the fight we're not going to get her. I'm sorry but we just can't. Not with the war and all."

"Because faith is all that can get me through. I need her and so I need to believe that it is possible that she'll come back to me." I tell him frankly. Just as he is about to say something else a nurse comes in and gives me another bag of morphling.

With the pain gone I feel sleep coming over me and I know that I won't be awake much longer. " I won't give up Gale. Never."

I won't give up on you Katniss. I will get you no matter what. Even if I have to die to save you I will. I want our baby to be safe and I need you so much. I will do whatever it takes. I would die for you. I would die...


	14. Chapter 14

Katniss POV

Once out of the tunnel we take a turn down a small dank hallway built out of cinderblocks that you can see clearly defined on the walls. The hall is just as musty as the tunnel under the city. It makes me wonder how far down we are.

We stop at a door with multiple locks on the outside and the man in front of all of us unlocks it quickly. He steps aside at two me pull me into the room. As we come in I see two things, a chair on one end with straps on the arms of it and the cinderblock wall facing the chair that held straps built into it.

Snow must have followed us because once the men force me into the chair and strap me onto the chair on the other side of the room and move aside I see him standing there.

"Well Katniss I don't really have any problem doing this but I guess I'll say I do. So I'm sorry but I have to do this. I believe that this will help keep you in line. Oh and I want to tell you that I really could do this to anyone, men, woman, children, infants, and babies. I wouldn't have a problem with it." He tells me smiling. Then he looks at the door and sees something that makes him smile even more.

"Goodbye Katniss." He says leaving.

Once he is out the door In walks a man I know from my times in the Capitol, Cinna stands before me dressed in threads of clothing that you can see his figure through. There are visible scars on his face and arms of all different colors. Some purple others black and some a sickly green color.

The guard nearest the wall orders him to take off his shirt and he obeys slowly. When his shirt has been removed you can clearly see the amount of weight he has lost. His ribs jut out from where his stomach lays reduced to near nothingness.

The man then straps him to the wall so that his back is facing me. The guard draws a large knife that I recognize from my time in the arena. What happens next I am nowhere near prepared for.

He steps nearer to where Cinna hangs on the wall pulling the knife closer to his head. Just before he slices his neck like I thought he would, the guard moves his hand down and cuts each side of the spine.

I hear the sickening crack of the ribs being removed from his spine. Cinna makes no noise while this happens though I can tell that he is fighting as much as he can not to make any noise.

Once all of his ribs have been released from his spine the guard traces the area with the knife for a while longer. He finally drops the knife and it falls to the ground with a clatter. You can see the scarlet sheen of Cinna's innocent blood in the blade of it as it clatters noisily to the floor.

I try to look away as I see the shine of the scarlet blood drip down from the wounds on his back, but the guard behind me holds my head so that I am forced to watch as the other guard shoves his uncovered hands into the holes in the his back. I see the strain of the evil man's bulging muscles as he pulls apart the ribcage. I hear the even more sickening crack of the ribs as they slowly break one by one. Then more blood drips down from the now gashes opened up in Cinna's back.

He takes a moment to pause and ask Cinna "Any last words?"

"I. Regret. Nothing. I'm. Sorry. Katniss." He pants out through labored breaths.

"That's it?" The guard behind me asks.

"I guess so..." says the man nearest to Cinna.

He plunges his hands into the gash on the right hand side of Cinna's back and pulls out a sack covered in blood. I know this is his lung and as I watch it deflate I know he is just that much closer to the relief that death will bring.

"Please stop dragging this out! Just kill him and stop his suffering! Please!" I begin to cry but my tears are no mask for this horrendous show.

The guard reaches in the other side of his spine and pulls out the other lung. As I watch it slowly deflate I know that Cinna has been released from the torture he went through in the time that he was held captive.

Tears stream steadily down my face and my body is wracked with sobs. The man behind me releases my head and begins to free my arms. I sit, frozen by fear and sorrow, staring at the lifeless body of Cinna hanging on the wall completely limp. Only being supported by the restraints around his wrists and ankles.

Snow could kill me, I think to myself. He wouldn't even have a problem with it. I could be killed by this merciless man and there would be nothing I could do about it. My baby, no not just my baby but Peeta's baby, could die and he wouldn't care. I will do all it takes to protect my child, nothing will get in the way of my baby and I.

"Mrs. you need to get up." The cruel guard tells me shaking me out of my thoughts. I can't seem to move and all I can think is just how much worse can this day get.

Tears flow down my face in a steady stream as silent sobs wrack my body.

"Come on! Get up!" He yells at me. I try to get up and on my shaky knees I fall right back down.

"You lazy bitch get up!" He screams. I flinch because, even threw my tears I can still see his hand extended ready to hit me.

"Stop." A figure coming through the door commands. "Don't hit her." He commands. " She just needs a moment, you may be used to watching people being murdered but she isn't. At least not like this," he lowers his voice as he comes close to one of them, "Being forced to watch it. You two take turns because you think it's fun. Just let me handle her okay?"

The two men retreat to where Cinna's body hangs limp on the wall. More tears fill my eyes as I watch them remove the restraints holding him to the wall.

When they have all of the restraints removed the men take him down from the wall and drag him out the door leaving behind a streak of glistening scarlet on the floor from where his back wounds are opened and his lungs dragging beneath him.

"Can you get up?" The guard asks me nicely. I nod myhead still at a loss for words. He takes my hand from where it lays on the arm of the chair and helps me to stand.

We walk down several dark and dank hallways on the way to the small elevator that I have come to know to associate as nothing but bad news.

We ride the elevator up to the twelfth floor. To the room that I have visited three five times, once before and after each game and then on the victory tour. The doors open to reveal a room the same as the many times I've been here.

My eyes that have dried mostly on the long ride up here have welled up remembering who used to be here. Peeta, he'll never see this again.

There against the wall are two avoxes that I know well. They look well fed and other than the difficulty swallowing seem totally normal.

"Lavinia can you come take Katniss here to her room?" The kind man behind me says. "Oh and by the way my name is Nika. I just know you were wondering" he laughs.

I nod and follow the avox girl as we walk through the hall. Once she opens the door I walk somberly to the bed and collapse on it sobbing uncontrollably. The pillow still smells faintly of Peeta which only makes me cry harder and I can't seem to ever stop.

Then I feel my baby kick, not so much of a kick but like a brush. In a very calming manner. I calm down some as I feel the calming feeling of my baby moving around.

"You're going to be just like your daddy aren't you?" I say. My question is met with several quick kicks and I take that as a yes. "Okay baby, okay"


	15. Chapter 15

Peeta POV  
I wake in the dark of my own room. The television has been turned off since I went to bed and the room is near pitch black. A dark figure passes in front of the television and I instantly recognize the man that is there.

"Haymitch?" I question. The shape freezes just outside the doorway.

"Damn it." He mutters under his breath. "What boy? Why can't you just sleep?" His gruffness showing and voice somewhat scratchy.

"Why were you here?" I ask standing to turn the light on. Once I stand by him I flip on the light and I look at him.

There are dark circles under his eyes and it's obvious that he hasn't slept in days. "Well you're the only one who has a television linked to the feed and well you're not the only one that cares about her." He says rubbing the back of his neck.

"Whatever just turn the television back on." I tell him. The monitor flips back to life and I see her laying there on the bed curled in a bit of a ball rubbing her stomach and whispering to the baby. I just catch a few words here and there like 'baby' 'Peeta' 'Capitol' 'Bastards' 'from' 'us'. Then suddenly she's standing by the bed seething with rage.

She scans the room as if she's looking for something. Pausing he glance on the lamp by her bedside table she swiftly picks up the lamp that sits on it and throws it across the room.  
It hits the floor by the door to her bathroom and shatters to a million pieces on the plush carpet. She then flips the table that was just under the lamp causing the contents of it to spill out of its drawers. I see the note I was hoping she'd find once she got back from the games fall out on the floor.

I remember exactly what I wrote.

Dear Katniss,  
If you're reading this then that means I'm dead. I know it must be hard for you but I wanted you to be the one who came out. I know you wish I were there but I can't be there with you.

In the future I know that we'll be together again but I hope that won't be any time soon. At least I hope not. Just know that I love you and I don't want to be gone either.

Yours Always,

Peeta

She starts crying like crazy and collapses in a heap on the floor.

"What the hell was that?" Haymitch asks looking from the screen to me.

"I wrote her a letter before we went to the games... I guess she just now found it." I say glumly. That letter was supposed to make her feel better about living and me less guilty about leaving her alone, but evidently it just made her really depressed...

"Well while you were sleeping I heard that they were taking her to district 12 for some interview thing or something. So I guess you could write another one." He says shrugging. Just before he leaves he grabs the door frame and turns to me, "I'll be back in half an hour to get you so we can go." He tells me walking away.

I look back to the television and see Katniss still laying on the floor but she's no longer crying. She's laying on the floor curled up and talking to her stomach loud enough for me to hear every word clearly.

"Okay baby I'm calm now so just relax okay?" She says rubbing small circles over one side of her stomach. She starts laughing a bit "Okay calm down!"

I get up and walk over to where my small desk is in my room and begin to draw. Once the drawing is done I still have twenty minutes until the hovercraft will take off so I flip over the paper and write her a letter.

"Boy, are you almost done?" Haymitch says popping his head into the room. I jump because I had gotten so engrossed in the letter just hoping to make it good enough for her and to make it hopefully make her happier than the last one did. It won't be hard to make this one better especially since the last one made her break down. You can't really get worse than that...


	16. Chapter 16

Katniss POV

In my dreams I'm haunted by one word and one word alone, always. I recognized it just as I awoke screaming from yet another nightmare where I watched Peeta die over and over again, only it isn't a nightmare. I'm living it. There is no waking up from it.

My screams reverberate throughout the room as I sit upright in the bed panting and breathless, the image of Peeta's face as the spear pierces his heart forever burned into my eyes. I blink to try to get rid of the permanently scarring image of him dying right before my eyes.

I begin to sob hysterically into my pillow hoping that today I won't even have to leave the bed. Not leave the room. Never leave again.

The baby begins to kick in that calming way that I love. Just that simple motion can calm me so quickly and I've become quite accustomed to it.

"You know mommy loves you?" I ask my stirring baby as I rub a small spot on my stomach where I feel the pat of my baby's foot. I feel a stronger kick and laugh a bit. "I'll take that as a yes."

"I just wish your daddy were here now... he would love playing with you right now. I really wouldn't get like any sleep between the two of you. He'd just be messing with you all night and you'd be kicking all day. I just wish he was still here... " I say sighing tears rolling down the side of my face still resting against the bed as I lay there.

" The Capitol just had to take him away from us. Those bastards, they just had to completely ruin my life didn't they?" A surge of anger runs through me and I get up off the bed seething. I feel the need to do something, to throw something or to hit someone or better yet throw something at someone...

I scan the room looking for something I can easily destroy and my eyes lock on the lamp that sits just by my bed. I take a step to reach it and yank it from the wall throwing it at the wall. It hits the wall right by the bathroom and shatters into tiny shards, the shards go everywhere on the carpet.

I'm still mad and don't want to just calm down like I know my baby wants me to at the current moment. I lock my aim on the side table that previously held the lamp I just recently chucked out of the room. I turn my body so that I can easily throw it.

I smash it into the floor and it's drawers spill all over the ground. Papers spread everywhere and I see some drawings I recognize to be Peeta's. There are also some other papers and one small book from the drawer on the floor.

I walk cautiously over to where the contents of the drawer lay on the floor and I see a small, folded note laying on top of all of the papers furthest from where the table and lamp stood a while ago.

I pluck it from where it lays with one word written on the top of it, 'Katniss' in Peeta's scrawling handwriting. I stretch a shaking hand to take the letter from the pile of papers. I unfold it slowly wanting, but still not wanting to see what he wrote. I begin to read it and

Dear Katniss,  
If you're reading this then that means I'm dead. I know it must be hard for you but I wanted you to be the one who came out. I know you wish I were there but I can't be there with you.

In the future I know that we'll be together again but, at the same time I know that won't be any time soon. At least I hope not. Just know that I love you and I don't want to be gone either. I'll stay with you always.

Yours Always,

Peeta Mellark

I collapse on the floor crying, desperately clinging to the small note crumpled into a little ball right by my heart. The sounds of choking sobs come from me as I lay on the floor hands pressed to my chest.

The faint sound of the door creaking alerts me to the fact that someone else is in the room. I sit up slowly and cautiously turn around to see who is standing in my room.

There in the corner of the room right by the door is Lavinia standing there holding a pad of paper in her left hand and a pen in the other hand.

"What do you want?" I spit at her.

She quickly writes something down and holds it out for me to see.

"Come over here, I'm not going to bite." I say. She takes the few steps over to where I sit on the floor amidst many other papers and holds out the note once again 'They want you to get dressed, you're heading for district 12 today' it reads.

"Why are we going there? Today of all days? They don't care that I just totally trashed the room?" I ask.

She simply shakes her head and writes again.

'That's why you're going today, you actually got up and did something... and they don't really care about the room, It's yours anyways...'

"Okay, well I'm sorry I messed this up... I guess I'll help you clean..." I reply.

Lavinia shakes her head quickly, 'No that's my job and anyways there's been worse messes than this... you don't want to know.'

"I'm still sorry." I tell her sheepishly.

I get up off the floor trying to avoid the pieces of broken ceramics and wood that are now all over the place. Reaching the dresser I open the top drawer, which has all of my more comfortable clothes in it, and grab a few at random.

I pull the shirt over my head and tug it to get it down over my giant stomach. Even though it was rather stretchy it stopped just above the pants I had put on. I search the drawers hoping to find something I can actually wear but come up with nothing better than this shirt and pair of pants.

"Lavinia?" she turns her head in my direction. "Do you know if Effie is okay? I mean where is she? Could you get her for me?" I ask her more of pleading.

She quickly scribbles a note on the note pad again. 'Yeah I can get her. Do you want her now?' the note reads.

"Yes if you could. Thanks." I tell her as she stands up brushing off her pants in the process. "Thanks"

xXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxX xXxXxXx

"Katniss! Oh my gosh it's been so long! I wanted to see you forever but they wouldn't let me in your room! Why wouldn't they? Whatever- Oh my gosh! You look amazing! How far along are you?! When's this little one going to be here? Do you know the gender? Has it kicked? Oh gosh can I feel? You look absolutely beautiful pregnant! I can't wait to see your little one!" Effie squeals at me as soon as she's in the door.

"Umm it's nice to see you too Effie..." I start only to be cut off by Effie hugging me.

"You need to answer my questions!" She tells me.

"Umm well there's been some people that have been trying to hurt me... The baby will be here in like three and a half months. I don't know the gender but I know it's, well I hope it's a boy." My hand automatically goes to my stomach as my baby begins to stir. "Yeah it's kicked, little one is just like its daddy."

Effie smiles brighter than I've ever seen and it looks like her face might break. "Oh can I feel!" She asks thrusting her hand at my stomach.

"Well I actually need you to get me something..." I ask twisting my hands in a small circle.

"What can I get you?" She asks thoughtfully.

"Well none of my clothes fit now so could you get me some? Just don't go overboard... nothing too fancy or outrageous..." I tell her.

She leaves the room quickly and Lavinia goes with her to select what would be considered 'outrageous'

xXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxX xXxXxXx

After they return I select the plainest one of the outfits and change quickly in the bathroom.

"We need to go, are you ready?" The man standing at my door asks.

"Yes" I tell him as we make our way out the door and to the elevator. After a short ride to the roof we leave the box and make our way to the waiting hovercraft.

Once onboard I am showed to a small room with a bed and a small assortment of clothes.

"I thought this was only going to take a few hours to get to the district. Why do I have my own room?" I ask him.

"We just all figured that you'd want to get some rest before you start filming..." He told me leaving out the door.

I just crawled under the covers and lay down to try to get some sleep before I had to get off the hovercraft.

xXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxX xXxXxXx

"Katniss! Up, up, up we're going to have a big, big, big day!" Effie trills to me walking in the room.

I grunt at her not wanting to wake but knowing I have to. I throw a pillow off the bed and hit her in the chest.

"Manners!" She chides me.

I snap. "Are you f-ing kidding me? You want me to be happy getting up when everyone I've known and loved has ended up dead? You want me to be happy that I can live another day in this hell hole we call earth? You want me to just wake up all perky like you? I'm going to probably be the worst mother ever because every f-ing time I look at my child all I'll remember is how we both should be dead because it's father was a much better person than I ever was and I ever will be! You have no idea why I am the way that I am so don't even think about telling me to mind my manners! You will never know how I feel! Have you ever been left widowed and pregnant? No? Really? So leave me alone! You don't know what it's like! You don't know, and you never will!" I scream at her.

After my yelling spell I collapse in a ball on the bed. Effie stands where she was when I threw a pillow at her standing awkwardly not wanting to move any closer but not wanting to move away either.

"I'm sorry. I shouldn't have yelled at you. You still don't know what it's like though..." I tell her reaching out to her. She takes my hand and held it firmly.

"Oh it's okay. If it makes you feel better I forgive you." She tells me smiling.

"I do feel better, sort of." I tell her as we get up and leave the room.


	17. Chapter 17

Katniss POV

The door opens to the hovercraft and before I can even look around the scent of decaying flesh reaches my nose. My stomach flips and I can just manage to keep the food I have in my stomach down until I actually see where such a horrifying scent is coming from.

I lean over and vomit all over the floor of the hovercraft. There on the dirt surrounded by ashes are ten of thousand green rotting corpses covering what used to be streets. At the tops of the piles the bodies are absent of all flesh and show only the skeletons of what used to be people. The flesh of which has oozed down to form gigantic puddles nearly obscuring the ashes that lie beneath.

The air around me seems to get hotter with every step I take off the hovercraft only increasing the horrid scent of the decaying flesh. Once down from the hovercraft I try to find the area with the least amount of ash and green skin on it.

I look around me and stay still as I see a cloud of ash begin to billow toward me. I simply look around me for several moments until I feel a warm hand on my shoulder. I barely turn my head so that I can only barely see who it is that is trying to console me.

"Katniss. Do you want to talk here? Or do you want to go to Victor's Village? We could also go to the woods?" The woman, Sorrele, who is in charge of the interview taking place today. I try to fight the tears that are threatening in my eyes but they still fall leaving tracks on my face revealing the skin under the makeup I was forced to put on.

"Village..." I say not trusting my voice to hold steady for any more than that single word. I try to move further to the house I used to call my home only to realize that I must go the opposite direction to get to my home.

"Okay let's head there now." She replies turning on heel and heading up the familiar path to Victor's Village. I wipe the tears that linger on my cheeks and follow her up the path to my

As we near the home I used to live in I need to take a moment to collect myself. I step across the threshold to my old house. I don't know why I'm nervous, I know my way around here. Everything is exactly the same as we had left it before the Quell. The chairs and even the pillows lie exactly where they used to.

I turn to look at the people who stand in my living room and then go up the stairs to my old bedroom. The only thing that I can hear in the house is the patter of my shoes hitting the floor. I open the door with a small creak and peer in. Somehow I expect to see something that is out of place only to be disappointed that nothing is out of the ordinary. I take the few steps over to the bed and sit down on it.

I lay down on the bed on my side on what used to be Peeta's side of the bed, then I roll over so that I'm on my side of the bed. As I turn I hear the noise of the crinkling of paper and I struggle to stand up, once I have I flip the blanket over and see what made the noise.

There laying on the bed is a slightly crinkled piece of paper with a black and white drawing on it. I don't recognize who it is but all I see is a woman laying in the middle of a bed. There is a pillow pressed to her face and neck with one hand. Her head is lying on another pillow scooted to one side of the bed. Her free hand is resting on her swollen stomach.

What you can see of her face is entirely relaxed and slightly twitched up into a smile. Her dark hair is drawn into a braid but some wisps still fall in front of her face. It's not until the last detail that I recognize who the gorgeous pregnant woman it's... me.

I flip over the paper and see a note written in Peeta's handwriting.

Dear Katniss,

I know that I'm not there, I also know that I really should. I wish I didn't have to leave you either. I know that you wish I were there with you to help you through all of this but I'm not. I'm always there with you. Really I am.

I'm already there, take a look around I'm the sunshine in your hair. I'm your shadow on the ground. I'm the whisper in the wind. Don't make a sound. I'm the beat in your heart. I'm the moonlight shining down. I'm the whisper in the wind and I'll be there in the end.

Can you feel the love that we share? I'm already there. I'm with you through everything. I truly wish that our little baby were a gorgeous little girl like you, its amazing mother, I do, at the same time realize that it seems to be like me in many ways. A little boy would be amazing for you, it could calm you down just like I used to.

Just remember that I'll always love you and that I'll always stay with you and the baby. I hope that we'll be together again someday.

Yours Always,

Peeta Mellark

I read the note as I begin to sit on the bed. When I get to the end and read where he says he'll love me and always stay with me my hand automatically finds its way to my mouth as the choking noises begin and I lay down. My body shudders with every sob I let out and I curl into a ball trying to hide from the cameras I know now stand in the doorway.

After what feels like hours I finally regain control of myself and stop the sobs, just not the tears. I remain facing away from the people filming me as I try to make the tears stop falling.

Finally one seems to get fed up watching me on the bed and lets out an exasperated sigh before telling me that I'll have to get up so they can keep filming. As soon as he said that I hear a crack and sharp intake of breath, so I know he's been smacked.

I roll over on the bed so that I'm now facing them and can see each of their faces.

Just behind a camera man there is a woman, in her 50's it appears, with long, silky, bright red hair. She's about as tall as I am and has fairly pale skin. On her shoulder is a tattoo of a phoenix. To her left is a small muscular man with a large beard that looks similar to President Snow's that is some funky green color. Then there's the man to her left. He stands there with a red mark on his face looking annoyed and very ugly.

I get up off the bed walk over to where the latter of the three stands and smack him full on in the face letting the loud crack emanate through the room.

"What was that for?" He asks enraged.

"You know perfectly well what!" I shout at him.

"Fine I'm sorry we just can't stand here all day watching you nap." He snarls back at me.

"You have got to be f-ing kidding me! Really? Napping? Is that was you Capitol idiots call crying?" I holler at him. He shrinks back into the wall as I storm out of the room after carefully picking up the note and folding it up before shoving it in my pocket.

I hear the loud footsteps of the three people following me down the stairs and out my door. I march over toward the giant gap in the fence to make my way into the woods and to my old meeting spot with Gale.

As I near the place there is an eerie silence that fills the woods. No birds are singing and nothing makes a sound other than the slight rustling of leaves under the feet of the only creatures that seem to be out here.

I sit on the rock that Gale and I used to share as the crew gather around me to begin the interview.

"So Katniss how does it feel to be back in District 12?" The woman asks.

"I really didn't expect it to be this way... I knew that the mines blew up" lie number one "but I thought that there would be something left other than this." I tell her just as I've been told to say.

"Do you miss your friends and family that lived here?" She asks.

"I really didn't have that many friends other than Gale... and I miss them all so much. I just wish they were here with me." I say, then remembering the letter that said 'I'm already there' I nearly burst into tears.

"Anyone in particular you miss?"

"Peeta and Prim. Though Peeta didn't die here he still isn't with us... and Prim just brought so much light into the dark place that was here... They were both so excited when they found out about the baby... I really wish they could be here for the birth too... and to see him or her grow up and be a wonderful person" I trail off as I feel tears forming in my eyes.

"Would you like to see this place rebuilt?"

"I think it would be a good start to help us get over this war we just got through and to help the recovery of the country in both financial and population ways." I say on script.

"Okay well that's all we really needed..." she says trailing off. Thank goodness because that's as much as they're getting from me today.

"Let's get out of here it smells horrid" the rude camera man says.

"Shut up." I tell him. "Let's get back to the Capitol I need to do something..." I tell the three of the people before me.


	18. Chapter 18

Peeta POV

We had waited up in the air in the hovercraft just long enough to see the Capitol one appear and allow the crew/Katniss off, and then we shot strait back to District 13. I had only seen her for a brief second because we 'had to leave' but in that brief time all she did was to stare at the piles of corpses that line the destroyed city.

When we had first arrived I had been asked if I wanted to actually go out to the house and I told them indifferently yes. I nearly vomited when the stench had hit my nose and the bloated decaying corpses met my eyes but I just ran to my home to drop off the letter.

Now we are nearing the ruins of District 13 in order to get into the underground part. The landing area opens for us and we descend into the earth as only a few dim lights show us the way down to the safe landing zone.

"Hey Peeta! We need to hurry if we don't want to miss dinner!" One man on board yells as he leaves the room.

"Not hungry." I mumble as I shuffle to the hallway to my compartment feeling my stomach flipping at even the thought of food.

"Peeta you need to eat. It's not healthy." He tells me.

"I said I'm not hungry. I don't think it'll stay down anyways, still can't forget the smell" I say trailing off before I say what the smell was of.

"Okay dude whatever." He yells down the hallway not bothering to look back at me.

xXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxX xXx

I lay on my bed constantly replaying every word I had said in the letter and realizing all too late that the entire thing makes me sound like I really am dead and writing to her before the games, other than the drawing and the small note about how the baby is like me...

Although I would have not been able to get to her if I had just said I was alive since Snow most likely had the house searched before she went in... that and he has cameras in all the rooms... so he'd know just where to look for the note.

I evidently fall asleep thinking about the note and about Katniss because those are the only two things I remember dreaming about.

I'm in a room that's all white. All I see is the white until my eyes find a bed on the other side of the room.

There in the bed is Katniss holding something in her arms. A small blanket that is wrapped up around something. She looks down at the small object in her arms and smiles cooing at it.

I begin to slowly walk over to her trying to see what she's holding.

"Katniss..." I breathe out as I see what she's holding, I really should have figured it out earlier but I didn't, it's a tiny newborn baby.

"Peeta, I'd like you to meet someone." She says looking up to me smiling brightly. She shifts her arms so that I can see the baby even better. "Peeta, meet your son Peeta Jr., Peeta Jr. meet your daddy" She says before moving one hand and uncovering the baby's head.

"He looks just like you honey." She whispers at me. I see the small head of his, the soft delicate blonde hair that covers his head.

"Could, could I hold him, please?" I ask stuttering.

She laughs lightly before shaking her head at me "Peeta he's yours too, you can hold him if you want." She tells me lightly.

"Well can I?" I ask her, holding my arms out so that I could grab my tiny son.

"Of course" she laughs as she adjusts her arms so that I can easily scoop the small boy out of her arms.

He's surprisingly light yet heavy at the same time. His ribs are so small and seem so fragile that I'm truly afraid I'll just break him in half, but I grow more and more accustomed to the small being in my arms as I hold him for longer.

I finally let go with one hand and reach it up to take his small hand in my own. His eyes flutter open at my touch and for a second I think he's going to cry, but then he looks at me with little blue eyes. My breath hitches in my throat as I realize that the little boy in my arms has my eyes...

"He's just like you, you know" Katniss tells me distracting me from my baby.

"What do you mean?" I ask totally confused as to what she means, he does have the blonde hair and blue eyes that I have.

"He just, it's hard to explain... all I know is that he can calm me down when I used to freak out. Back when I was still in..." she stops and shudders slightly. "When I was in the capitol, and I would have a panic attack... he would calm me down... that and he could piss me off too." She laughs at the end of the sentence.

"That makes sense..." I say.

I wake from my dream peacefully, not remembering what the ending of it was... All I knew was it was a good dream and I thought nothing could go wrong, but I realized that I was beyond wrong about that.

I lay on my bed staring at the ceiling for a long time until I begin to come up with the perfect idea for a drawing. I hurry and grab a few pieces of paper and a pencil.

I draw what I saw when Katniss looked up to me, in my dream, and introduced my son to me. Her eyes filled with light, dark hair gracefully rolling down one of her shoulders free of the braid she usually wears, and the light hair peeking out from under the tiny blanket. His eyes are closed and his face is relaxed.

Then I draw just a picture of my holding my tiny son in my arms. His eyes open are open and his hair is peaking out from under the blanket he's laying in. His hand is wrapped around my finger and the shading of the picture makes it look almost real. Like my baby was really there on the paper.

"That looks really good" I hear over my shoulder nearly jumping out of my skin at the sound of Haymitch's voice.

"Oh my- I mean thanks..." I reply lamely


	19. Chapter 19

Katniss POV

The past few weeks were absolutely nightmarish for me. Horrible nightmares plagued my dreams, when I was able to sleep, and even more chase me when I was awake. Most days I just lay in the bed in my room. Though last night I didn't have a nightmare... I had a very pleasant dream about Peeta and I as well as our son... I woke up happy but had no energy to get out of bed so this particular day is no different until I hear shouting outside my door.

I get up out of bed and stand near the door so that I can hear it better.

"No we're not doing that to her. Why the hell should we?" One guard yells at the other.

His response is much quieter and I can only make out every few words through the thick door. "Punish... rebels...Peeta...come back... hijacked... kill... baby... die"

My mind reels with all the possible things he said. They want to kill your baby, you have to protect it no matter what... It's your little baby and they can't take him away from you. I think to myself.

Quickly I get back to the bed and curl up under the covers so that I appear to still be sleeping. There is the slight creaking of the door that tells me the men have come inside my room. I even out my breathing and lay on the bed hoping that they'll take pity on me and leave, not take my baby from me.

"Katniss, we umm... we need you to come with us... Snow's orders" I hear Nika say(Just in case you forgot he's the one that took her up to her room at the end of chapter 14) I just lay there curled up in a ball as best as I can and stare up at the two of them.

"Come on. Snow needs us to do this. I know you won't like it but, you have to." Nika tells me. He sounds fatherly whenever he speaks to me, like I'm a frail little child. I lay there staring off into space not wanting to move.

"Katniss come on" The other guard commands me grabbing my arm. I wretch my arm free from his grasp and fold my arms protectively over my stomach.

"I won't let you kill it!" I shriek at them, tears pooling in my eyes. "Don't you understand? I won't let you!"

"Katniss calm down, we're not going to do anything to the baby. We just need to take you to do some testing." Nika says trying to appease me.

"I don't believe you! You're going to kill my baby to punish me for something I didn't do! Please just try to understand! Don't take my baby from me! It's all I have left of him... If you take away my baby I'll have no one left. Please, please, please, please, please just understand." I say with my voice growing softer each word I take as I descend into a frantic state, tears stream down my cheeks and I cover my face with my hands not wanting the men to see me like this, or really at all.

Then I feel my baby kicking me trying to calm me down but I start to hyperventilate thinking about how even that will be taken from me.

"Katniss I swear, we won't hurt the baby just breathe, okay just breathe" Nika tells me, sitting on the corner of the bed placing his hand on my knee and gently massaging it as I slowly get my breathing back to normal. "Okay we're going to leave now, are you ready?"

I gather up all the courage I have and finally ask "If- if you're not going to kill my baby- then what are you going to do to me?"

"Well, we're going to test out something on you, to see how it affects mood swings." The other guard tells me. He looks so familiar but I don't know how... I know I've never seen this man before in my life but there's something about his face...

"It's not going to be fun but I won't let them harm you or that baby." Nika says standing back up.

"Promise?" I ask looking up at him with a sad face.

"I promise" He tells me firmly. I reach my hand out to him and he takes it to help me up. "Do you want to walk?" He asks me.

"Yeah, I mean I don't want to get fat or anything." I say sarcastically hoping to lighten the mood a bit. The other guard leaves the room and we stand there a moment. "Nika?"

"Yes?"

"What's his name?" I ask looking toward the door.

"Oh, well he prefers to be called Cleaver, that's his last name."

"Okay..." I state plainly thinking, trying to remember how I know that name... it's on the tip of my tongue but I just can't place it... "Where are we going?" I ask as we leave the room

"Don't worry I'll get you there." He says simply.

xXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxX

We walk down the same hallway that we went down after Cinna was killed. The walls seem less eerie than that time and I feel slightly more comfortable with Nika near me again.

After a few minutes of walking we turn off the hallway into a small room. In it there is a hospital bed with restraints attached to it, a small metal table sits next to it laden with several medical tools, a bottle of some unknown mixture that seems to shine gold, multiple needles and syringes, a pair of scissors, a scalpel, as well as a bottle of pills.

I recoil into my guard and it's then that Cleaver decides to finally talk directly to me again "Don't worry, we won't kill you precious little baby." He sneers at me with a look of disdain on his face that finally makes me recognize why I feel like I know him.

He's Cato's brother..

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I will apologize for any past present or future misspellings, whether it be named or some random word. I hope that my characters are not too off...


	20. Chapter 20

Katniss POV

Cleaver ushers me over to the bed and shoves me down onto it. I look around trying to find a way out of here but realize there is none. The walls are entirely flat and seem to somewhat shine. There are some lights up above but they seem oddly two dimensional.

I'm incredibly frightened and look for Nika to help me in some way but he just stands in the doorway trying not to look at me as the other man straps my hands down so that I cannot move. I try to remain somewhat calm but obviously I cannot calm myself down since I'm trapped in a humid, dingy, small room with only a hospital bed and some medical supplies.

"Hold still and this will be over before you know it." Nika tells me.

"Please don't take him from me." I shout at them.

"Stay still. Don't make this any harder than it already is." Cleaver sneers at me. A doctor walks in and brings in a cloth that emits a strange sent.

"This is Doctor Malbono. He will be doing the procedure that needs to be done on you. He is one of the most capable doctors in all of Panem so nothing should go wrong." Nika informs me.

I see the doctor advancing toward where I lay, strapped to the bed, unable to move. He sits in the stool that he brought in with him and begins to extract some of the golden liquid from the container into the syringe. I shudder at the thought as to what that could possibly be, poison of any kind or perhaps it'll numb me up so that he can forcibly rip my child out of my stomach, maybe it'll increase the amount of pain so that it is completely unbearable.

He sets down the syringe and wipes my arm with the cloth he brought in with him and sets it down again. Once again he picks up the syringe and this time he stabs it into my arm, just above the scar from where Johanna dug the tracker out of my arm a few months ago.

There is a large pinch where the needle plunges through my skin and muscle. Then as he pushes the plunger down I feel a cooling sensation as the concoction runs through my blood. My entire body shivers and I start to feel... different. He takes the needle out of my skin and places it on the table then walks out of the room.

The door shuts behind him and I hear the click that signals that I've been locked in this room all by myself. The dark threatens to consume me as the 'lights' overhead go out and after a few moments change to a screen of all grey.

I look at it for a moment before I notice anything unusual about it. The texture seems to shift and become bumpy riddled with small pockets where you can see black spots. I lean up a bit to see better when I realize what the bumps are, bugs.

As soon as I realize what they are they detach from the ceiling and rush at me. I flinch backwards trying to dodge the creatures but am not able to before they split off in all directions narrowly avoiding my face. I breathe out a sigh of relieve as I see them disperse before looking at the walls around me.

The walls are still the same black only now their color is slowly melting off of themselves. It oozes onto the floor and quickly builds up until there is a pool deep enough to reach the bottom of the bed. The black continues to build up until it's about to choke my, invading everything around me until suddenly it vanishes, and the screens change.

I see what I remember from the first games where I was allies with Rue I watch her death. Only this time... it isn't Marvel that kills her...Peeta does.

Peeta stands over her body stabbing her body over and over again with a ruthless grin spread across his face. The blood drops run down his arms after each stab and he finally makes a cut right below her ribs, shoves his hand inside and pulls out her heart as she looks at him before the light finally drains from her eyes a few moments later. Blood pools around her and seeps into the earth.

The blood pool around her seems so incongruous with the little body lying dead on the ground as Peeta gets up from on top of her and proceeds to walk away from the scene. As he walks he throws the heart he was still holding on the ground. It bounces a bit and comes to a rest as he disappears into the thick grove of the forest.

The video fades into another that at first I can't quite place but then I realize where it is and don't want to watch the video at all. I try to turn my head away from the screens but everywhere I look there is one. My neck can't stretch to my shoulder so I'm forced to watch it anyway.

There on the rock that Gale and I usually meet at are Gale and me just sitting there talking. Suddenly Peeta comes bounding out of the thick grove behind us and rushes toward Gale. He jumps back and nearly falls off the shelf of rock that we were previously sitting on.

He charges yet again and this time succeeds in hitting Gale square in the jaw. They walk in circles for a few moments before Peeta begins to shout at Gale.

"Don't go near her! She is mine! I don't know what you were planning to do to her but I just want to tell you that there is no way in hell that you're getting that close to her ever again! She is my property you f-ing bastard!" He shrieks at Gale.

"What do you mean 'your property'? She's a person not a house you idiot!" He yells right back.

"Well you're going to die so we don't have to worry about you anymore." He says calmly pulling a flaying knife out from his belt.

"Why?" I scream out in the video.

"Because you're mine that's why!" He yells right back to me. Gale simply looks at me with a shallow expression and then back to Peeta.

"Okay," he says. "I'm ready to die now."

Peeta takes no chances and runs right toward Gale standing defenseless. He tackles him right on the edge of the cliff so that Gale's head is dangling over the void. He twists the knife in his hand expertly and makes his first cut on Gale's lips, succeeding in ripping them off his face. Then he takes out another knife and saws off each joint of his hands slowly and throwing the pieces over the cliff.

Gale's cries of pain reverberate one the valley that lies below, I want to help him as I lie in the bed but know that I couldn't even if I were there.

Peeta hacks up Gale's arms as well before finally decapitating him and carving out the eyes before he moves on to the lower half of his body. By now his body is totally unrecognizable and I can't seem to tear my eyes away from it.

Once he's done with the destroyed body of what used to be Gale he makes sure to scrape all the remaining pieces of flesh from the rock and takes me by the hair dragging me back through the forest.

The screens continue to play the same scenes over and over until I almost believe that this was all true.


	21. Chapter 21

**Peeta POV**

_I am laying in bed in my old home in District 12. I get up out of bed and hear my child's cries from down the hall. They are quickly silenced though and I become confused until I get down to the living room._

_There sitting on the couch is Katniss holding a small bundle in her arms. She's softly speaking to it, not speaking but, singing to it. I walk to where she sits and slide in next to her. I place my hand over her shoulders and use the other hand to pull back the top of the blanket to reveal the baby's head._

_It's the same as in my other dream that Katniss had a little boy in her arms, while she was laying in the hospital bed. The blonde hair spread over the top of his head his face the same as mine but I notice as I look upon him adoringly that he has Katniss's nose and her lips._

_"Peeta I'm going hunting today, I need you to watch him." She says abruptly._

_"But-" I try to argue._

_"Peeta, it'll be fine, I have everything set out so that you can find it, and anyways I'll only be gone for a few hours. You'll be fine." She says shifting the baby into my arms and standing. She walks over to the closet and shrugs on her[hunting jacket](http://www.fanfiction.net/s/8268474/21/Taken-away) and slips on her hunting boots._

_Something feels wrong about this, about the entire dream, her leaving and about her leaving the baby with me. Yet, I do nothing about it and continue on._

_I stand up and walk over to her giving her a kiss before she leaves out the door._

_"Be safe." I call after her as she walks down the small path out our front door and towards the woods._

_"I will, don't worry." She says over her shoulder._

_"But, I will" I whisper so that she can't hear me and I turn around walking into the kitchen to get some[breakfast](http://www.fanfiction.net/s/8268474/21/Taken-away) for me._

_**xXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXx** _

_"Peeta come quickly!" Delly shouts from the front door of the house._

_"What is it?" I say still holding the baby in my arms now feeding him a bottle. Katniss has been gone for five hours and I'm getting really anxious about it._

_"It's Katniss..." She trails off. I look at her and can feel my eyes widen as I slide my shoes on and rush back to the front door._

_"Delly, what happened?" I ask convinced that the worst possible thing has happened._

_"It's not too far... just up here." She says avoiding my question. As we round the house I see a crowd of people gathered just along the edge of the forest. In a circle around one tree in particular._

_We get closer and I see what they're looking at..._

_There on the branch of the tree is a noose tied around a limp body. This alone would upset me but it's the body that's the worst part about it, she's a hunter, she's a victor, and she's a new mother._

_Katniss  is hung in the tree head slightly crooked and her tongue slightly sticking out between her lips._

_"No!" I repeat for a good minute, "This can't be happening! Tell me it's not true, just tell me it isn't." I scream at the people around me._

_Then I hear Katniss's voice come from the area that she is hung in the tree."Peeta, it isn't real, I'm right here. I'm here with you."_

_"No Katniss you're dead, you're not with me anymore..." I shout at her angry that she would try to tell me that._

_One of the people in the crowd starts yelling back, only her words don't match up with the movement of her lips, neither does the manly voice emanating from them. "Peeta wake up. It's not real."_

I look up and see Gale standing over me and nearly jump out of my skin. His hands are on my shoulders.

"What are you doing here?" I ask sitting up in my bed.

"They let me in, you never showed." He says looking me in the eyes. "Are you good now?"

"Yeah, I guess." I tell him. "What didn't I show to?"

He sighs tiredly, runs his hand through his hair, "I can't tell you anymore... you didn't show so she's not letting you come." I'm confused so, rather than ask questions he evidently can't answer, I get my schedule and go to lunch.


	22. Chapter 22

_**Katniss POV** _

"Up, up, up it's going to be a big, big, big day!" I hear Effie's voice call to me through the door.

I roll onto my back and stretch out a bit before spinning over so that I can sit on the edge of the bed. I'm now nine months pregnant and I've been forced to watch those video's every week. The last one was really one of the only ones that actually stuck.

Now I hate him more than anyone, only second to Haymitch and President Snow. What he did to me is unspeakable and I can't even stand the thought of him anymore.

"Up! We need to get you ready for later!" She trills opening the door to my room. "Ah you're up!" She exclaims when she sees me sitting up in bed.

I grunt at her and fall back onto the bed pulling the pillow towards me so that I could go back to sleep.

"No Katniss, you need to get up. We need to eat some breakfast so that we can get you ready for this evening!" She trills again.

"What do we have this evening?" I question rubbing my eyes.

"Well we're starting off your Victory Tour with an interview!" She exclaims.

"Just five more minutes, please." I beg.

"Come on!" She says grabbing my arm from the pillow I had just shoved over my head.

I roll my eyes and give in. "Fine but let me get a shower" I tell her.

* * *

 

I walk out of the bedroom after getting my shower and dressing in a pair of sweat pants, a T-shirt that's getting way too tight around my stomach that swells out severely. Right before I leave the room I grab a thick button up sweater and shrug it on.

"There you are! Come on eat up we're running late already and we haven't even started yet!" She says forcing me into a chair and shoving a plate at my place.

I shovel tons of food in my face as Effie chides me for my bad table manners. I ignore her entirely until she brings up the fact that I've completely avoided all of the bread on the table as well as the hot chocolate set right in front of me.

"Okay now that you're done we can get you back to your room and have the team get to work!" She says standing from her chair and beginning to walk down the hallway. She looks at the silver clipboard she now carries and exclaims happily "Oh and we're almost back on schedule!"

"Um, can I get some help over here?" I shout at her trying to get up but failing back on the chair.

"Oh I'm so sorry! Of course! Just take my hand and I'll get you up out of this chair." She says walking over to me in her shining silver high heels and matching dress. She takes my hand and we work to get me up out of the chair. I'm almost up when she lets go of my hand a bit prematurely and I fall back onto the chair.

There's a cracking noise and the chair under me breaks. The seat of the chair breaks and my butt sinks through it until stopped by my thighs where my giant stomach wedges me into place.

"Fuck you have got to be kidding me! I broke the fucking chair! I'm such a fat ass!" I scream as Effie takes a step back and looks at me with surprise on her face.

"I need an Avox over here!" She yells over her shoulder. Darius comes over to where we are, near the table and he can't seem to help the smile that comes to his face when he sees me in the chair. The smile is contagious and I start laughing hysterically.

Effie's mouth twitches up into a smile and she gives a light chuckle. "Okay well if you could just get her up then we can get to work!" She says looking at Darius.

He nods and helps me out of the chair, plants me on my feet, then helps me on to my room taking me as far as the hall before letting go of me. Effie trots along in her silver sequin covered dress chatting about how lucky I am to be able to go on the Victory Tour. I only hear a few words here and there but when I do I hear about how we're only going to a few districts.

"Wait, where all are we going?" I ask stopping her with my hand just in front of the door.

"Only District 1, 2, and 4. There was some sort of collapse with the tracks and we can't get to the others. Though you'll be starting at the Capitol." She says turning back around and opening the door to my room.

 _So the rebels are taking over all other districts other than 1, 2, 4, and 12,_  I think.  _I'll just have to keep that in mind._

My thoughts are ended there by the orders of my prep team. They strip me of my clothes and get to work taking me back to beauty base zero. It takes quite some time to do so with the bags under my eyes, the stretch marks all over my body, and how pale I am and how blotchy my face seems to stay.

I stand there silently for around three hours, as they remake me. When they have me down to beauty base zero they silently shuffle out of the room. I'm left alone for only seconds before Effie pops her silver covered head in the door and tells me I can take a nap and that she'll wake me up in three hours.

I slouch over to the bed and lay down. The second my head hits the pillow my eyes close and I fall asleep.


	23. Chapter 23

Katniss POV

I wake up and see Effie's face hovering right above my own. I jump back in surprise and a small squeak comes from my mouth. She lets out a chuckle.

"Katniss good thing you're up! We need to get you all prettied up so that you can do your starting interview." She tells me.

"Interview?" I ask confused. There wasn't an actual interview before the victory tour the last time I went on one.

"Well Snow decided to have one before you went to the other districts since there is are much less of them this year. He also requested something rather odd... though I think you'll do just fine with it!" She trills irritating me further.

"What does he want me to do?" I ask rolling my eyes.

"Sing. He even picked out the song and everything!" She says handing me a paper.

I read what it says. On one paper was the sheet music and on the other was the lyrics alone. The lyrics are simple enough and I memorize them quickly.

"Do I really have to go on this tour? I mean I'm pregnant, I could get hurt. The baby could come at any point-" My sentence is broken by a thought in my head. That thing inside you isn't a real baby, it's more of a parasite waiting to break out and kill you just like it's filthy disgusting father did, it tells me. That thing just can't wait to kill you like it's father the filthy bastard he was tried to. "No" I say trying to silence the voice in my head.

It doesn't work. The voice continues to tell me all sorts of things about how the baby and Peeta are evil an deserve to die. No, it's not his baby it's mine and only mine. No one can take that from me.

Wait, if he's dead why is the Capitol telling me this now? I think to myself. He's no longer a threat to me anyways, so why bring it up now?

I shake the thought from my head and continue. Effie is looking at me concern in her eyes.

"Katniss?" She asks. "You okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. Just I really have to do this?" I ask once again.

"Yes, you get to do this." Effie tells me before heading toward the door.

"But, I could have my baby any minute. I don't want to spend a week on a train." I complain as she leaves out the door. The prep team enters and drag me out of bed to get me ready for the interview in a few hours.

After the makeup and hair is done, they bring me out to the middle of my room and pull out a dress for me to wear.

It's amazing with the soft flowing ivory fabric, one strap that is entirely covered in white sequins, which don't shine too much just enough, then a strap under the bust of it and one more connected to it that goes down over where the middle protrudes, leaving room for my stomach, the bottom comes so that it'll fit snugly about mid thigh and hug all my curves.

I start crying at the sight of it, it's just so perfect. Absolutely amazing.

"Who made it?" I ask through the tears.

"Cinna designed it." Portia informed me. I nod. It only makes sense that he would have made it. It's just too perfect for anyone else to have made it for me.

They slide it on me and zip up the back. For how fancy it looks, it's surprisingly comfortable. Then they force a pair of six inch high gold glittered shoes on my feet no matter how much I tell them that I won't be able to walk. Surprising me yet again when I can walk in them with no effort whatsoever.

They do a look over to make sure that everything was taken care of and then shove me into the elevator with a chatting Effie. She talks about how exciting it would be if I had my baby on tour and then could show him/her off at one of the appearances, even though it'll only be one week if I don't have the baby, I'm only visiting 1,2,4 and I'm appearing in the Capitol twice. That'll make it so much easier for me than to try to visit all 13 places. Like I did on my first tour, that tired me out enough and now that I'm pregnant I'd just fall asleep in the middle of something important.

"Okay well Snow said that you'd be asked to sing at some point so he's going to let you keep the music with you even though there'll be a quick run through right before we start." Effie tells me as we reach the stage. "Oh here's the pianist now!" She says as a man who looks about 50 walks over and introduces himself.

"Hello Katniss, I'm Mr. Dahan. I'm going to accompany you today with your solo!" He declares energetically. I look him up and down and determine that he's not from the Capitol, or hasn't been Capitolized.

He's about 5 feet 4 inches maybe a bit taller. His face is soft and very fatherly with a graying beard covering it, not a big bushy one but a beard with part shaved close and the middle bushing out. His hair is cut close and seems to be mostly black but grey around the temple. He's got a bit of a gut, but it's hardly noticeable.

"Okay," is all I say.

xXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxX xXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXx

Five, four, three, two, one.

The countdown for the live interview to start is over now and I can feel the burn of the lights and the cameras on my skin. It has gotten about a million times hotter than it usually is during November, but that's mostly because I'm incredibly nervous.

"Here we are again with Katniss! Only this time she's getting ready to set off on her Victory Tour! I just can't wait for her to get back so we can talk again, what about you all?" Caesar asks the crowd gathered before us.

I look out over them and am nearly swallowed by all of the metallic colors. They reflect the light right back into my eyes and I have to look at Caesar to try and get my bearings again.

"So Katniss, how have you been?" He asks turning to me as well.

"Oh, I've been better..." I tell him.

"What's wrong?" He asks more concerned.

"Well this little guy in here has been keeping me up late with all his kicking." I say sarcastically. We both laugh for a minute before he turns the conversation back on me.

"So how's the newest Mellark doing?" He asks. I shudder at the mention of his last name but manage to conceal it mostly.

"Oh well he's developing nicely, as you can tell from this giant thing." I say patting my stomach.

"So it's a boy?" He asks leaning forward.

"I don't actually know yet, it's just a feeling I have. I had a dream actually." I tell him honestly.

"Katniss you really don't look all that big. I've totally seen people bigger than you." Caesar tells me trying to cheer me up about it.

"Yeah with twins." I laugh.

"Well of course with twins. Anyways, Snow said that you wanted to share your 'developed talent' tonight. Could you do so now?" He asks leaning forward.

"I guess." I say. "I need to stand up though, so could you help me?" I ask politely. He obliges and hoists me up from the chair. I laugh a bit remembering the catastrophy from when Effie tried to help me up but, I continue on to where there's a microphone stand on the stage near a large, elegant, black, shiny, grand piano.

Mr. Dahan begins to play the piano and it's a soft, soothing ballad, meant to calm the listener. I begin to sing when I'm cued.

"Light the way home the message says.

Hope written in the cups on a chain link fence.

A soldier is missing, a candle is lit.

A loved one's heart bleeds tears ever since.

So many questions 'Is he still alive?'.

Missing in action flags raise to the sky.

Magnetic messages cling to the cars, and on trees and posts yellow ribbons are tied.

But what do we do when time passes by?

When hope dies into the black of the night?

When faith is all that we have left to hold, and yellow ribbons fade to white?

When logic says not to hold on and others say 'Give up the fight'?

When faith is all that can get us through, and yellow ribbons fade to white?

And one day soon we'll all be together again.

Wearing white on streets of gold."

I go back to the seat I previously occupied and sit down again. Caesar looks at me and smiles widely.

"That was lovely Katniss." He asks once I'm done. 

I murmur a quick thank you in reply while looking down at my shoes, flustered by the complement.

"So what do you think your baby will look like?" He asks as I start to rub small circles in the side of my stomach as my baby starts kicking me.

I shudder at the thought of what I'm supposed to say. "Well I think that this baby will be a miniature Peeta Mellark. Just like it's father." I say just like I know that Snow would have wanted me to say. I continue to rub circles right over the spot where my baby is kicking.

"Katniss?" He asks hesitantly.

"What?" I ask back wanting to know what he's going to ask.

"Is the baby kicking?" He asks me.

"Yes, he is." I tell him.

"Could- could I feel?" He asks nervously. "As long as it's okay with you." He adds quickly.

"Of course!" I exclaim grabbing his hand and placing it over the spot where my baby is kicking repeatedly.

I had totally forgotten that we were in front of a crowd until they all erupt in applause when Caesar looks at them smiling widely.

Suddenly I feel totally exhausted, can feel my eyelids drooping, and I know that I'm about to fall asleep on the stage.

"Katniss are you okay?" He asks looking at my face.

"Yeah just really... really... tired." I say as my head begins to droop to the side and I snap it back up.

"Well we should get you back to your room so you can get to sleep. Let's wish her a good night's rest!" He calls to the audience. They erupt in response and I get up, with help from Caesar once again, then I walk off the stage after bidding them goodbye.

Once off I'm met by the shining, silver Effie.

"That was just wonderful! I can't wait till the next appearance! Oh this is just going to be wonderful!" Effie exclaims.

"Where are we heading first?" I ask stepping into the elevator.

"District 4. It'll be so gorgeous!" She declares happily.

We stay silent for the rest of the ride and once at my door I bid her a goodnight and step inside.

I take off the dress that I wore earlier and kick the shoes to the corner of the room. Then, in my underclothes, I walk over to my drawers and pull out a pair of black, spandex shorts, a red tank top that will still fit me, and a white hooded sweatshirt.

I slip them on and then walk over to my bed, climb in, then pull the covers over my head.

"I love you baby, you are my baby and only mine, I love you so much. I love you, never forget that." I whisper to my stomach rubbing it until his moving stops and I can finally drift off to sleep.


	24. Chapter 24

Gale POV

"... So after we get back to the train station we'll steal one and ride it back to 12. From there we'll get in the hovercraft that will take us to the smaller base of 13 and then we'll just go from there... Any questions?" The instructor tells us, not allowing any time for any questions to actually be asked before adding, "So we all got it? Good, good. Then you'll be leaving in an hour. I suggest you take this time to say goodbye to loved ones... as always with these missions there is a risk factor. Though this one is one of the lowest we've seen." He says before turning and walking out the door to command.

We'd been sitting in that room for about an hour and a half going over what the rescue plan entails. They sedated Peeta because, well really because I suggested it but mainly, he was convinced that he was going on the mission no matter what. I couldn't stand to have him get hurt, or worse killed, and then have to tell Katniss. Though she seems to hate him more than anything at the moment...

I'm shocked back to life as one of my volunteer buddies slaps me on the back of the head.

"What was that for?" I ask semi angrily.

"You zoned out again, just helping you out. You have to be on your A game if you're going on this mission." He replies quickly.

"Whatever" I huff angrily as I turn a corner to go say my temporary goodbyes to my mother, siblings, Katniss's mom, and Prim. I'll be seeing them in a few days so it's not permanent.

xXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxX xXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXXXxX

No matter how many time that I told my mother that I would be fine she just kept saying 'be safe' over and over again. I didn't want to go by the time I left but, I knew that I'd get Katniss back, one way or another so it'd be worth it.

Now we're boarding the hovercraft to drop us off in the district right next to District 4. That'll be her first stop and that is where we'll rescue her. The walls are obscured by the seats and various straps for the seats on it and there is hardly any room between the twenty rows of the seats.

We all shuffle in and take our seats in the assigned area before even thinking to get try and comfortable

The ride there is silent and the entire four hours it takes to get there we sit awkwardly, some more so than others. Once we finally land the plan goes into action.

The seating area slowly empties as we begin to meet at the various rendezvous point assigned to each soldier. I'm in a group with ten other men and Boggs as our group leader.

"Okay, so, you all know the plan, get in, find her, and get the hell out. We've noticed that there isn't much security over the west wing of the building, so that's where we're entering from. Let's move, we're the first ones that are supposed to go in." He yells at us. Quickly we begin the short trek from the edge of the forest to the large brick building used as sort of a hotel for the Capitol people when they come to District 4.

Finnick is also in my troop since he knows the most about the area. Him and Boggs are in the front with the rest of us leading in rows of two.

When we reach the door Finnick looks in the small window, to check to see if the coast is clear, then nods his head at Boggs. In one fluid movement Finnick steps back and Boggs kicks the center of the double doors, causing them to fly open as if there was nothing holding them in place at all.

I stare at the doors for a moment and realize, they weren't locked. That means one of two things, this is a trap, or they want us to get Katniss.

Before I have any time to voice my concern, we're filing in kicking down the doors as we pass them. There is no sign of life in any of them so we continue on until we reach a fork at the end of the hallway. The team splits and goes down both ends of the hallway. I take the lead and we go to the right.

This hallway comes to a dead end after a few turns. I grow more and more worried as I move along the stark white hall. On this stretch there is only one door, at the very end there is a red door with no handle whatsoever. I signal the man walking behind me to kick it in.

It takes a few tries but he finally gets it down. I quickly walk in holding my gun out so that I can protect myself if need be.

The thing I actually wasn't expecting to see, though, was, Katniss laying on a bed in the middle of the room. She's silently sobbing her body shakes as she cries, she slowly rubs her stomach apologizing to as I walk over to her slowly.

"Katniss?" I ask putting a hand on her shoulder. She looks up to me and starts crying all over again.

"Is that really you Gale?" She asks reaching toward my face.

"Yeah Catnip, it's me. Come on we're taking you with us." I tell her, grabbing her hand and trying to pull her up. It's then that I realize she's only in sweatpants and a thin shirt. "Here, put this on." I tell her handing her my thick soldier issue jacket. Her swollen stomach sticks out the front of it and I have to restrain myself from laughing, even though this is a highly dangerous situation, because I never would have thought I'd see her like this.

She's still sniffing a bit but quickly puts it on. "Thanks..." she says just before we leave.

"Come on Gale I already talked to Boggs and we'll meet at the hovercraft." One of the men calls from outside the door.

"Don't you think that was a bit too easy?" I ask still being cautious as I lead Katniss to the door we had just came into the building through.

"Gale, where are we going?" Katniss asks, not so much asks as wines.

"We're going to District 13. Don't worry we don't have to walk much further." I say pulling her close to me. She's started shivering and it can't be good to have her out in the cold.

There's no snow but, the temperature in 4 is below freezing. I lied to her when I said we didn't have much further to go, we actually have to walk about half a mile and, looking at her, I'm not sure she can go that far.

Her steps are unsteady and she looks like she hasn't been walking all that much recently. I start to really watch her and see that she's stumbling a bit.

"Katniss, are you okay?" I ask worried.

"No, not really, how far do we have to go?" She says not taking her eyes off the partially frozen ground in front of her.

"Half a mile..." I say taking her hand and pulling it over my shoulder. I can hear her teeth chattering now very clearly and it worries me. "Guys she can't make it that far, she's absolutely freezing." I call out to the others.

"Here, I grabbed an extra jacket." Finnick says walking over to Katniss and me. He pulls the thicker black coat over her shoulders before saying, " I also got the largest size, so it should zip. You have to keep the baby warm. Good to see you again." He says before walking away.

It doesn't take us nearly as long as I thought it would to get to the hovercraft and we load up. Katniss gets taken to a private room for the short trip to get some preliminary things checked out. I sit where I was before the mission was, contemplating how well that went.

There were no guards there and the doors to the outside were unlocked... It was easy, maybe it was too easy...


	25. Chapter 25

_**Peeta POV** _

"Hey Peeta! Wake up!" I hear a voice shout above me. "Dipshit get up!" He shouts again.

"Why?" I groan rolling over but not opening my eyes to look at, the person I now know is, Haymitch.

"Well if you must know, Katniss is here." He scoffs at me.

My eyes shoot open and I bolt upright in bed.

"Please don't be screwing with me." I say, remembering the last five times I fell for this. I still can't believe I fell for it... "Are you serious? She's actually here? She's okay?" I say as I swing my leg over the edge of my small bed, strap on my other leg and stand quickly. I'm suddenly aware of the fact that I have no clothes on, at all. Haymitch smirks at me and I quickly throw on my district assigned clothes.

If it wasn't for my rush to see Katniss I would have beaten the shit out of him but now wasn't the time for that. My face is probably as red as a tomato right now but, I don't care, I get to see Katniss again. I could finally see my wife. I could finally hold her. I'll finally get to feel the baby kick myself, and I can kiss her tell her how much I missed her. Then sometime soon I'll get to see my baby, hold him, and just finally be the father I always knew I was born to be.

"Come on they just got her settled." Haymitch declares as we both rush down the small corridor to the nearest section of the hospital.

He pushes the doors open and walks down a long hallway.

After a few more minutes of walking he comes to a stop at a door.

"She's in there. Just... keep things PG there are cameras everywhere. Now go get your girl." He says before opening the door, shoving me inside, and locking it again.

Katniss is lying in the hospital bed sleeping soundly. Looking like an angel, just as she always does. She's rolled over on her side facing me, sheets wrapped around her legs and stomach. Her arms are wrapped around her stomach, around our baby, almost protectively. I take a few more steps toward her sleeping form and see that her hair is in a matted braid.

I don't want to wake her, but I so want to see her lovely grey eyes, so I simply walk over to her, kneel on the floor by her head. I reach out my hand and begin to stroke her hair.

At first she's relaxed by my touch but all too quickly I feel her tense up. She slowly opens her eyes to see my smiling face.

"Peeta. Go. Away." She snarls at me.

 _Well that was a nice hello,_ I think to myself.

"Katniss, you don't mean that." I say as I continue to stroke her hair softly.

I stand up so that I'm standing above her. She looks up at me with fear in her eyes, I take one more step forward to calm her down but she puts her arms up in front of her face.

"Katniss, honey it's okay. It's just me." I say reaching a hand out to caress her face.

"Go away." She begs.

"Why, Kat I only want to help you?" I say as she slaps my hand away.

" Please don't hurt me." She pleads curling into the corner of the hospital bed, trying to shield herself from me.

"Katniss, I couldn't hurt you." I say still trying to calm her down.

"Get away from me. Don't hurt me again. Please, please don't hurt me again." She says tears forming in her eyes.

Suddenly something seems to snap inside her and she's on her knees yelling at me. Screaming in my face.

"Go away you f-ing bastard! I hate you!" She screams at me, punching me in the face.

"Katniss, what's wrong?" I ask just before she starts screaming at me again. Her fists collide with my face and chest just before I get a better look into her eyes.

Her normally amazing grey irises have been entirely swallowed by the pupil, making her eyes appear to be black. They stare at me coldly and somewhat maliciously as I try to find the words to relax her.

I try to say something to calm her down yet again but, before the words leave my mouth her hands are on my neck putting pressure on my windpipe choking the life out of me. She's still screaming at me as the world goes black and I slump down to the floor.


	26. Chapter 26

"KATNISS! What are you doing?" One doctor hollers as many of them come barreling in the door. I still have my hands firmly around Peeta's neck but I'm losing my grip. He's slowly sliding to the floor and the doctors are trying to restrain me. I fight them as two others come in, put Peeta in a neck brace, and cart him out in a flash.

I hadn't noticed that I'd been screaming obscenities the entire time this had been going on and that the doctors have been trying to calm me. I start really freaking out when I feel a sharp prick in my arm and the cool feel of some liquid moving through my veins.

"What was that? Are you giving me more tracker... jacker... stuff..." I question as I feel my muscles no longer cooperating with me. I can hardly speak at the end of the sentence and I know that it wasn't tracker jacker serum. It's probably worse...

**xXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxX xXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxX xXxXxXxXxXx**

"Can you hear me?" I hear a soft voice say over head.

"Whaddoyouwant?" I slur at him.

"I just wanted to inform you that you have a visitor." He says nicely.

"Who?" I ask suddenly alert, eyes wide open, hoping it isn't that f-ing bastard again. He might kill me this time if he has the chance.

"It's Haymitch. Do you want to see him?" He asks moving towards the door. I nod my head and the doctor watches me as he walks in the door.

"I think I can handle her, go on now." He tells the doctor, waving him out the door.

"Fine, just be careful." He replies before walking out the door.

Haymitch takes a seat at the end of my bed and just looks at me for a moment. Neither one of us wants to start the conversation but right now I'm somewhat laying down on the bed with my head propped up on multiple pillows. I start to reach for the small panel on the bed to sit me up when I realize I have restraints on my arms and legs.

I sigh in annoyance before looking to Haymitch and asking, "Could you sit me up?"

"Of course." He replies, much to my annoyance, in a happy tone. I roll my eyes at him as he sits me up in my bed. Then he sits back down at the chair near my bed. "So... do you mind telling me why you freaked out on Peeta?" He asks trying to hide the sadness in his voice.

I simply shake my head, trying to tell him that I'm not going to tell him. He nods again and we sit in an uncomfortable silence for a few moments before I speak up again.

"C-could you get Gale for me?" I ask stuttering slightly. All I want is to be with him, I know now that he's the one I should have been with, I need him to stay with me in this crazy place I'm in. He needs to be here to hold me to this world before I go insane.

"Yes I can do that. He's actually been waiting for you to get up." Haymitch tells me as he walks out the door.

Only a moment later Gale walks in the door and I feel tears spring in my eyes.

"Hey Catnip." He says looking over at me. "Are you okay?" He asks when he notices that I'm crying.

"W-why the h-hell do I have these on? He's the one that should be locked up, not me. He should be in jail. He needs to be locked up, not me. Why the hell do I need these?" I sob out to him. "Can't I get these off?" I beg with him.

"Catnip... just a second" He turns to the door where two men are coming in now. "Unlock her." He says before walking toward me and enveloping me in his arms.

"I never want to see him again. Never... never." I sob. Once my arms have been unlocked my hands go around his neck and he holds me close as I sob into his shirt. My legs are released and the two men leave the room yet again.

"Catnip? The doctor is going to come in and ask you a few questions okay?" He asks. I shake my head in his chest and grip his shirt more firmly. " I promise you don't have to answer anything that makes you uncomfortable okay?" He asks rubbing my back and smoothing down my hair in an attempt to calm me.

I nod my head and slowly back out of the safety and security of Gale's chest, though I still remain safely in his arms.

I look at the door and see that there are two doctors standing at the door holding clipboards.

"Katniss... we're going to ask you a few questions. We'd like you to answer as simply as possible. Can you do that for us?" One asks me.

"Yes" I reply concisely.

"What is your name?" The other asks.

"Really? It's Katniss." I say annoyed by the stupidity of these men.

"Full name please." The first asks readying his clipboard.

"Katniss Everdeen" I huff at them. I hear them murmur interesting as they scribble more than is necessary to write my name.

"How far along are you?" They ask.

"I'm due in two weeks." I tell them irritated that they feel the need to ask all of these stupid questions.

"What was the reason for trying to harm Peeta?" The first doctor finally asks after questioning me about absolutely everything but that.

"H-he did something to..." I start but my eyes tear up and I bury my face in Gale's shoulder again.

"Katniss, it's okay. You don't have to tell them. They'd understand. I'd be able to help you better if you would just tell me though..." He says waving the doctors out of the room.

I slowly unbury my face and look him in the eye, trying to figure out how to tell him without actually telling him.

"He did this to me." I say gesturing toward my stomach with my head and hands.

"Why are you mad at him? You got pregnant after you two... did it... why are you mad at him for that?" He asks clearly not understanding.

"I didn't want it..." I cry tears forming in my eyes once again. He looks at me eyes roaming about a bit as he thinks.

"So you didn't- Oh Katniss! I'm so sorry! I knew I shouldn't have asked. It's okay. I won't let that bastard near you ever again. I swear I won't let him hurt you again." He says pulling me into a warm embrace.

I cry myself to sleep with Gale laying right beside me, his warmth keeping me grounded and arms protected.


	27. Chapter 27

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> So sorry for the gigantic delay in posting but I've also not really been writing since my computer crashed and now some crappy stuff has been goin down in my personal life blah blah blah... on with the story

When I wake from my near death experience there is a flurry of doctors running around checking everything about me to insure there was no harm from when Katniss tried to kill me, physical harm that is. There is no way to describe how I feel knowing that the love of my life hates me enough to want to kill me. It isn't like during the first game and the time after that, before we did fall in love. No, this seemed almost like a message to me.

I can do whatever I want to you and you can't do anything about it. I can almost hear Snow sneer at me. I will do whatever it takes to bring you down.

"Okay Peeta, everything seems to be in order so we'll just check you out and then you may leave." The doctor says, looking at my chart.

It really doesn't take all that long to get checked out and soon I'm walking to my compartment trying to figure out what I'm going to do now. That is until I see Gale barreling down the hall staring at me with pure hatred in his eyes.

"Gale?" I question, his eyes narrow even further and it's as if fire is actually spitting from them. Once he reaches me he shoves me fiercely and I stumble to the ground. "What was that for?" I demand.

"Did you do it? Why in the hell would you do that to her?" He screams at me as I clumsily crawl up off the floor in the middle of the hall.

"What do you mean?" I ask utterly bemused.

"You know what you smug little bastard!" He bellows at me swinging and punching me square in the jaw."Gale I don't know what you're talking about." I say as calmly as I can.

"You think you're a man now because of what you did to her? Well, you aren't. You are just a bastard with no common decency whatsoever." He screams pinning me to the wall.

"Gale what are you talking about?" I say raising my voice slightly.

"I thought you loved her. How could you F-ing do that if you loved her so much? Could you really not wait?" He says beginning to quiet down halfway through and yelling once again at the end.

"Gale, what are you talking about?" I ask once again. Hoping this time he'll actually answer me.

I have none such luck, just as he opens his mouth to respond Haymitch comes running down the hallway with two guards in tow. "What's going on here?" He shouts at us, as he runs towards us. Knocking Gale away from me. "There was a call about a disturbance and I had a feeling it would be the two of you." He says looking at the two of us. "Why were you fighting?" He questions.

"This little bastard won't own up to what he did. Even after he announced the results on national television." He sneers at me lunging forward so the two men that followed Haymitch down here grabs his arms and holds him.

"What do you mean? You're mad because we got married? Because we did it?" I ask trying to figure out what he's so pissed about.

"Don't f-ing lie to me Mellark!" He screams struggling to get to me.

"What the hell are you talking about?" I scream right back.

"Peeta, Gale, calm down and come with me. I think what I'm about to tell you will explain everything." He says as he turns and walks down the hallway toward a room just around the corner.

I follow quickly as the men release Gale and he follows closely behind me. He still seems beyond pissed but he has calmed down a bit.

We enter the room a few minutes later and sit around a small table in the center of the room.

"There's no easy way to say this... Peeta... Katniss believes you... raped her..." He trails off uncomfortable with what he's telling us now.

"What? No, I swear! I would never do that to her- oh my- so that's what all that was about? No I swear I didn't." I shout at him.

"I believe you, however Gale doesn't know the full story." He says turning to focus more on Gale than me.

"What do you mean by 'full story'?" Gale asked confused.

"Well, when we took the initial blood samples there was a trace of something... through further tests we deduced that there were minute traces of genetically modified Tracker Jacker serum... well to be frank... she's been hijacked" He tells us quickly.

"What does that mean? How does that affect the fact-" Gale starts only to be interrupted.

"I already told you that I would never do that!" I yell in his face.

"Boys! We have reason to believe that she only thinks that it happened. The Capitol gave her some Tracker Jacker venom that was modified so as to not cause any physical harm, only to brainwash her." He tells us slowly this time.

"And?" Gale and I say simultaneously.

"They showed her some doctored videos of the two of you and... well her mind was distorted by the venom so it was tricked into believing that it was real." He tells us looking between the two of us.

"I knew something was wrong! F-! I just knew something would happen to her." I shout standing up from my chair, knocking it to the ground. "This is all my fault. I should have never let her out of my sight. I knew it. That should have been me in there." I whisper to myself turning to face the wall opposite them. I turn back to them and ask, "We'll be able to help her, right?" They hear the desperation in my voice and look at me with a bit of sympathy.

"There really haven't been any survivors of a hijacking. They've either died during the actual hijacking or later committed suicide... we do, however, have a few ideas of how we can help her back. Until we can fully evaluate her... Peeta, you need to stay away from her. Gale, well you need to stay with Katniss, she's comfortable around you and she needs some familiarity around her so that she can adjust easier." He says looking at Gale.

"So I can't see her?" I ask disappointed.

"So... what am I supposed to do exactly?" Gale asks him.

"We'll move you in to her hospital room and you'll stay there with her. Once we start treatment on her you can use that time to train till then. Right now we need you to help her get adjusted to 13." He says ignoring my question.

"Well okay then..." Gale says awkwardly.

"Gale, you can leave now, go get your stuff and head back to her room." He says as Gale stands.

"Oh, okay... Um... Peeta... I'm, um, I'm sorry for-" He starts.

"I know what you're going to say, and I know that I would've done the same thing... I know you care about her... Just thanks for... not killing me..." I tell him.

"Well I need to go... Um, bye?" He says trying to find the right words.

"Take care of her." I tell him as he walks to the door.

"Don't worry, I will." He tells me turning around to see me. "I just wish I didn't need to, you're the one she needs." He tells me, then turns out the door and leaves down the hallway.

"How likely is it that she'll stay like this?" I ask now that he can't ignore me.

"Like I said before, there really is no evidence pointing one way or the other. She is a fighter, according to the guard on the inside it took weeks of those sessions to make her actually believe anything she saw. He said the last 'treatment' was the worst and it was the one that actually started to brainwash her into thinking it was real."

"So she may hate me forever, and I'll never be able to be with her again?" I ask disheartened.

"You keep forgetting that she may come back to you. Keep hope alive, Peeta."


End file.
